AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Artificial intelligence, propaganda and online information are all hot topics in the cyber world.
On Thursday, Augusta University hosted a conference to discuss AI in our daily lives.
The conference was hosted on behalf of the UC Army Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and allows both parties to work together to preserve national security and strengthen Augusta as a cybersecurity hub.
While it makes life easier, professors from Augusta University and the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence discussed the potential danger artificial intelligence poses to you and even to our democracy.
Conferences like these allow both organizations to learn from each other and then disseminate that information to the community.
One of the big topics discussed was information warfare.
Dr. Craig Albert is a professor at Augusta University.
He describes information warfare as external factors influencing your decision-making process through social media.
The goal is to have a negative impact on American democracy.
But he says understanding issues like these is especially important as the presidential election approaches.
“If one of the external actors wants to influence the US presidential election without the user knowing, these different nation states, through social media, can offer operations directly tailored to US users on social media without you knowing, trying to subliminally change your thinking or disrupt your decision-making processes,” Albert said.
According to him, the main target of the information war at the moment is TikTok.
But he says it’s the people here who should feel safest.
Why is that?
“Because we have Augusta University, so at the forefront of education aligned with the U.S. Army, the Cyber Center of Excellence at Fort Eisenhower, as well as other agencies working together through this partnership and through this collaboration, providing the best defense,” said Craig Albert, AU professor and director of graduate studies in intelligence and security.
Albert urges people to stay away from Tik-Tok.
But if you decide to continue using it, he wants you to be aware of its potential danger.
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