Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said security risks posed by generative artificial intelligence and threats of aggressive cyber operations from China are defining today’s threat landscape, Nextgov reported Wednesday.
Easterly said technology companies and critical infrastructure operators must prioritize implementing enhanced security practices amid concerns about the proliferation of unregulated generative AI tools and China’s cyber pursuits.
“These are the types of threats that we need to be prepared to defend against, and that’s why continuing to resource our budget is so incredibly important,” the 2023 Wash100 awardee said.
According to Easterly, the Biden administration’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget allocates $3.1 billion to CISA, a $145 million increase to the agency’s current budget.
Easterly’s statement follows a warning from the Center for AI Safety regarding the dangers of using AI tools, saying that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
“When you have 350 experts coming out and saying there’s a potential for extinction of humanity, I think there’s a lot to worry about there,” Easterly said.
