This article is part of Demystifying AI, a series of posts that (try to) disambiguate the jargon and myths surrounding AI.

With machine learning becoming increasingly popular, one thing that has been worrying experts is the security threats the technology will entail. We are still exploring the possibilities: The breakdown of autonomous driving systems? Inconspicuous theft of sensitive data from deep neural networks? Failure of deep learning–based biometric authentication? Subtle bypass of content moderation algorithms?

Meanwhile, machine learning algorithms have already found their way into critical fields such as finance, health care, and transportation, where security failures can have severe repercussion.

Parallel to the increased adoption of machine learning algorithms in different domains, there has been growing interest in adversarial machine learning, the field of research that explores ways learning algorithms can be compromised.

And now, we finally have a framework to detect and respond to adversarial attacks against machine learning systems. Called the Adversarial ML Threat Matrix, the framework is the result of a joint effort between AI researchers at 13 organizations, including Microsoft, IBM, Nvidia, and MITRE.

While still in early stages, the ML Threat Matrix provides a consolidated view of how malicious actors can take advantage of weaknesses in machine learning algorithms to target organizations that use them. And its key message is that the threat of adversarial machine learning is real and organizations should act now to secure their AI systems.

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