The Autonomous Threat: Safeguarding Critical Infrastructure from Goal-Driven AI

Описание: The rise of autonomous, goal-driven AI is transforming how governments, businesses, and societies operate. These systems promise enormous gains in efficiency and decision-making, but they also introduce new vulnerabilities that traditional cybersecurity tools are ill-equipped to manage. From adversarial manipulation to data poisoning, the risks scale quickly as agents interact with one another at computational speeds far beyond human oversight. As critical sectors—finance, healthcare, energy, and digital public infrastructures—adopt increasingly decentralized and intelligent networks, the consequences of a breach extend far beyond technical failures. Agentic AI can embed bias, amplify misinformation, and even entrench malicious intent in ways that ripple across borders. The challenge is no longer simply identifying emerging risks but creating resilient frameworks that can anticipate and contain them. There is an urgent need to probe the technical and governance dilemmas raised by agentic AI, and examine how a global security agenda can be shaped.

What new vulnerabilities does agentic AI create that current cybersecurity frameworks cannot address, especially as digital public infrastructure accelerates inclusion?

What safeguards are needed as sectors like energy, finance, and healthcare adopt increasingly autonomous networks?

How can a global consensus be reached among various government and business stakeholders to adopt norms, regulations and standards for mitigating potential cybersecurity risks stemming from autonomous AI?

Speakers

Yehualashet Megersa Ayano, Director, Computer Vision Research, Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute, Ethiopia

Gilbert Nyandeje, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Africa Cyber Defense Forum, Kenya

Latha Reddy, Co-Chairman, Global Commission on Stability in Cyberspace, India

Anna Maria Collard, Senior Vice-President, Content Strategy, KnowBe4, Inc, South Africa

Moderator

Pavlina Pavlova, Founder, Critical Cyber, Austria

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