Today, artificial intelligence is no longer the far-off dream it once was. Tools like Midjourney, ChatGPT, and others have taken off in the last year, bringing with them a barrage of questions. Many cybersecurity experts, and those entrusted with handling sensitive information, have pegged data privacy as the likeliest potential threat that these programs pose to organizations.
The capabilities of AI are surmounting daily. Cybersecurity risks are mounting in step. From the first moment an AI Engine is optimized, it starts processing datasets. Partly because of this, effective data anonymization has become critical due to various compliance regimes and consumer protection laws. Companies hoping to utilize the power of artificial intelligence must factor in which datasets, audiences, and business problems it seeks to ascertain their predictions.
What Is AI Optimization?
Before testing an AI program, it must be optimized for its intended application. While, by definition, these programs are always learning, the initial training and optimization stage – which is defined by Volume, Variety, and Variance, is an essential step in the AI development process.
There are two modes of AI training: supervised and unsupervised. The main difference is that the former uses labeled data to help predict outcomes, while the latter does not.
The amount of data available to AI dictates whether developers can extract inputs to generate a significant and nuanced prediction in a controlled environment. Depending on data accuracy, developers will intervene and recast an existing outcome into a general output and reiterate the unsupervised processing w for better quality control and outcome.
Supervised Learning
In this context, labeled data refers to data points that have been given pre-assigned values or parameters by a human. These human-created points are then used as references by the algorithm to refine and validate its conclusions. Datasets are designed to train or “supervise” algorithms to classify data or predict outcomes accurately.
Unsupervised Learning
While no machine learning can accurately occur without any human oversight, unsupervised learning uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and cluster unlabeled data sets. These algorithms discover hidden patterns in data without the need for human intervention, making them “unsupervised.”
While more independent than supervised learning, unsupervised learning still requires some human intervention. This comes in the form of validating output variables and interpreting factors that the machine would not be able to recognize.
Data Anonymization in Machine Learning
The majority of machine learning advances of the past three decades have been made by continuously refining programs and algorithms by providing them with huge volumes of data to train on. ChatGPT, one of the most popular AI platforms today, is an open-source chatbot that learns by trolling through massive amounts of information from the internet.
For all of their impressive capabilities, however, AI programs like ChatGPT collect data indiscriminately. While this means that the programs can learn very quickly and provide comprehensively detailed information, they do not fundamentally regard personal or private information as off-limits. For example, family connections, vital information, location, and other personal data points are all perceived by AIs as potential sources of valuable information.
These concerns are not exclusive to ChatGPT or any other specific program. The ingestion of large volumes of data by AI engines magnifies the need to protect sensitive data.
Likewise, in supervised machine learning environments, anonymization for any labeled data points containing personal identifiable information (PII) is key. Aside from general concerns, many AI platforms are bound by privacy laws such as HIPAA for health-related data, CCPA legislation in California, or the GDPR for any data in the EU.
Failing to protect the anonymity of data impacted by these laws can result in steep legal and financial penalties, making it crucial that anonymization is properly implemented in the realm of AI and Machine Learning.
Pseudonymization vs. Anonymization
When discussing data privacy, the word anonymization is almost always used, but in reality, there are two ways of separating validated data points from any associated PII. In many cases, rather than completely anonymizing all data files individually, PII is replaced with non-identifiable tags (in essence, pseudonyms).
Perhaps the most famous large-scale example of this is blockchain technology. While personal data such as real names or other PII are not used, in order for the record-keeping chain to function, all data for each user must be linked under the same pseudonym. While some people consider this to be sufficiently anonymous for their purposes, it’s not as secure as true anonymization. If a pseudonym is compromised for any reason, all associated data is essentially free for the taking.
True anonymization, on the other hand, disassociates all identifying information from files, meaning that the individual points cannot be linked to each other, let alone to a particular person or parent file.
Because of this, many security experts prefer to avoid the half-measure of pseudonymization whenever possible. Even if pseudonymous users are not exposed by error or doxxing, pseudonymized data is still vulnerable in ways that fully anonymized data is not.
Already, some AIs are becoming so sophisticated that they may be able to deduce identities from the patterns within pseudonymized datasets, suggesting that this practice is not a secure replacement for thorough anonymization. The more data algorithms are trained on, the better they get at detecting patterns and identifying digital “fingerprints.”
Other AI-Driven Anonymization Scenarios
In the current landscape of ever-more-capable machine learning, the value of proper data anonymization is greater than ever. Aside from the vulnerabilities within AI-driven frameworks, external threats driven by digital intelligence present new challenges, as well.
For one thing, artificial intelligence is able to exploit technical loopholes more effectively than human hackers. But beyond that, AI is also increasing threats targeted at social engineering. Recently, users found that ChatGPT was able to generate phishing emails that were notably more convincing than many human-generated attempts. This will undoubtedly lead to increasingly sophisticated attempts to access private data. As such, new tactics must be employed to properly secure and anonymize data before it becomes exposed to artificial intelligence.
Anonymized Smart Data with Sertainty
Sertainty’s core UXP Technology enables Data as a Self-Protecting Endpoint that ensures the wishes of its owner are enforced. Sertainty’s core UXP Technology will also enable developers working within AI environments such as ChatGPT to maintain ethical and legal privacy with self-protecting data. Rather than attempting to hide PII and other sensitive data behind firewalls, Sertainty Self-Protecting Data files are empowered to recognize and thwart attacks, even from the inside.
As a leader in self-protecting data, Sertainty leverages proprietary processes that enable data to govern, track, and defend itself in today’s digital world. These protocols mean that if systems are externally compromised or even accessed from the inside, all data stored in them remains secure.
At Sertainty, we know that the ability to maintain secure files is the most valuable asset to your organization’s continued success. Our industry-leading Data Privacy Platform has pioneered what it means for data to be intelligent and actionable, helping companies move forward with a proven and sustainable approach to their cybersecurity needs.
As the digital landscape evolves and networks become more widely accessible, Sertainty is committed to providing self-protecting data solutions that evolve and grow to defend sensitive data. With the proliferation of human and AI threats, security breaches may be inevitable, but with Sertainty, privacy loss doesn’t have to be.