As the security stakes continue to grow because of sophisticated and advanced persistent threats, “Zero Trust” has to be accelerated by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), said Dr. Allen Badeau, Chief Technology Officer at Empower AI.

During Defense One’s and Nextgov’s bi-annual series “Genius Machines” on October 6th, 2022, Dr. Badeau discussed in detail the role that AI plays in zero trust and cybersecurity protections, and what agencies must consider when implementing AI into their networks and how AI can support agencies in their efforts to meet the 2024 deadline which continues to draw nearer.

In the significantly changed environment, Dr. Badeau says, there is not a single application solution, rather a comprehensive strategy is required to stop adversaries and their sponsored actors as they are trying to stay one step ahead of us using the latest technology.

Dr. Badeau stressed the need of automation and machine learning (ML) into processes and into cross integration as with traditional cybersecurity tools there is only a certain amount of work that a human can handle.

According to him, applying a zero trust mindset to AI is very important. “We are taking that sort of principle to heart because applying a zero trust mindset to AI is something that gives us a capability,” said Dr. Badeau, who is also the director of the Empower AI Center for Rapid Engagement and Agile Technology Exchange (CREATE) Lab.

“You have got to question AI models exactly the way you question a user, a device, anything that gets on the network because you don’t want AI doing something that it’s not supposed to do,” Allen further said.

Talking about zero trust at Empower AI, Dr. Badeau said his company embraced zero trust models very early on following the human-AI partnership approach to upscale their capabilities.