Interesting Talk about AI: A Bottle of Wine "Assists" the Wandering of the Earth

1. Let’s start from watching “The Wandering Earth”

Dadong: Xiaobai, how was your New Year holiday?

Xiaobai: Brother Dong, let me summarize one of the most fun things I have experienced during the holiday in one sentence! "There are thousands of roads, but safety comes first. If you drive improperly, your loved ones will shed tears."

Dadong: Haha, The Wandering Earth is indeed a dark horse of the New Year movies and the focus of everyone's heated discussion. I wonder what Xiaobai gained from watching the movie?

Xiaobai: Brother Dong, to be honest, I was busy crying during the second half of the movie. Although I am a science student, I don’t quite understand a lot of the physics and astronomy knowledge involved in the movie. It was only after I left the cinema that the netizens helped me understand the knowledge. The hand-drawn explanation diagrams that Professor Wang Yuanzhuo of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences drew for his daughter helped me solve many mysteries. It is really easy to understand and vivid.

One of the hand-drawn illustrations

Xiaobai: Brother Dong, besides the handsome boy in the movie, I am most interested in one character! Moreover, I have many questions about him.

Dadong: I guess you are talking about "Moss", the artificial intelligence butler in the space station.

Xiaobai: Brother Dong, you understand me.

Dadong: I am not an expert in the field of artificial intelligence, and I dare not speculate on the sci-fi design of the director and screenwriter. From the perspective of a fairly capable audience, I can try to answer your questions about "Moss", but the most important thing is to discuss some thoughts on the field of network security triggered by "Moss".

2. "Moss"

Xiaobai: At the last critical moment, Moss denied the hero's idea, believing that igniting Jupiter was an impossible task. When the relevant person in charge of the United Government wanted to cooperate with the attempt, he still refused to follow the instructions. Did Moss want to protect himself or did he already have some ideas of his own?

Moss in the movies

Dadong: The emergence of artificial intelligence and robots is inherently uncertain. In the film, we can see that there are two underlying commands in the robot Moss's system: the first is to protect the earth, and the second is to protect the space station. Which of these two commands do you think is more important to Moss?

Xiaobai: Moss chose to "defect" with the space station. I think the order of "protecting the space station" is higher than "protecting the earth" because the space station has backed up the entire human civilization archive and has enough human fertilized eggs. When the earth encounters a devastating blow, Moss taking them away is the highest order and the best choice. Moss can also protect himself better.

Dadong: That's right. That's why when Israeli scientists proposed the same idea earlier, the robot calculated the ejection distance and determined that the success rate was zero. The final successful ending was achieved by the male protagonist sacrificing himself and the entire space station. The uncertainty of robot technology has aroused the vigilance of many people. In order to protect humans, as early as 1940, the famous science fiction writer Asimov proposed the most classic three principles of robotics. If you are interested, you can look it up.

Xiaobai: I didn't expect Dong Ge to have such deep research in the field of science fiction. Thinking about it carefully, the whole film is quite logical.

Dadong: Do you remember how the male protagonist made Moss obedient and took back manual control?

Xiaobai: Of course I remember, a bottle of "illegal" vodka destroyed the entire Moss. Brother Dong, I seem to understand what you mean. Our discussion about the plot ends here, let's start the discussion on security.

Dadong: You’re such a clever little fellow.

3. Thoughts triggered by "Moss"

Xiaobai: In my opinion, artificial intelligence is a very good network security tool, but it is also a double-edged sword.

Dadong: You stole my line. Let me borrow a sentence from an expert in his speech. When a new technology is used for security, there are two situations: one is to use the new technology to support security, which can be used for attack or defense; the second is that a new technology itself will bring a new security problem.

robot

Xiaobai: Speaking of AI being used to help security staff with defense, I wonder if my understanding is correct? For example, if a staff member usually works in Beijing and suddenly logs in from New York one morning, this is an anomaly - AI can see that this is an anomaly.

Dadong: That’s a good understanding, but it’s actually much more than that. Artificial intelligence can help security a lot. It can automatically evaluate potential flaws in open source code, identify password leaks or misuse, analyze potential security behavior paths, and so on. But it is also a treasure trove for “attackers.”

Xiaobai: Speaking of attacking, I am a little scared. I feel that the efficiency of attacking can be greatly improved, but I dare not think about it.

Dadong: Cybercriminals use technologies in artificial intelligence, which can be used for a variety of malicious tasks. For example, scanning of open, vulnerable ports, or automatic assembly of emails, or even 24-hour eavesdropping. Another example is the automation of spear phishing, the use of real-time speech synthesis to simulate attacks and fraud, or activities such as packet sniffing and vulnerability attacks at scale.

Xiaobai: When facing technology, we really have to look at it from both sides.

Dadong: There is one angle we haven’t discussed yet. Are there some security issues with artificial intelligence itself?

Xiaobai: (pretending not to hear).

Dadong: Artificial intelligence itself has some vulnerabilities. For example, on the congested Beijing Third Ring Road, can an autonomous car smoothly drive out from the correct exit? Artificial intelligence must maintain a safe distance, but humans will play psychological warfare. Artificial intelligence may even pose a potential risk to humans.

Xiaobai: Any technology will have potential security issues. We cannot judge whether the technology is good or not based on this. Instead, we must make rational judgments and use some means to make technology serve us better instead of becoming an opportunity for criminals. Don’t you agree, Brother Dong?

Dadong: Hey, are you teaching me a lesson? Don't run away. Come back here! Here's an assignment for you. Think carefully about the three classic principles of robotics I just mentioned and write a review!