The past year brought a historic level of artificial intelligence advancement with the introduction and meteoric rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. As digital trust professionals anticipate further developments in this space, it is important to take steps to prepare for the risk, regulation, frameworks, data governance and workforce involved with AI, says ISACA expert Goh Ser Yoong.
The following are key items that digital trust professionals should have on their to-do list for 2024, according to Goh, head of compliance, ADVANCE.AI, and member of the ISACA Emerging Trends Working Group:
- Be vigilant against AI-generated deepfakes and misinformation: It is becoming increasingly easy for bad actors to mislead the public with scams that can be spread through fake videos and misinformation (to include disinformation) created through AI technology. Goh emphasizes that individuals play a key role in verifying the credibility of the information they consume.
- Keep an eye out for upcoming AI-related regulations: Goh predicts that 2024 will bring about more guardrails via AI regulations, and all digital trust pros—whether they are a developer or CEO—must stay abreast of changes in the regulatory landscape.
- Be aware of the evolving risk around AI utilization: New risk is emerging as different forms of generative AI are created. Digital trust professionals need to be knowledgeable about the risks associated with generative AI and their respective impact to organizations and society.
- Strengthen data governance by understanding AI models and decision-making: Data integrity is paramount with AI. Goh notes that users should have visibility into the data used to train an AI model and the factors that are influencing its outputs to ensure it is trustworthy, representative and fair, and its outcomes and decisions are reliable and free of bias.
- Ensure AI systems are safe and resilient: Digital trust professionals must take steps to make sure that AI systems—such as those used in self-driving cars—are working as they should and perform safely under a range of circumstances. Building skills in quality assurance and testing, as well as understanding existing regulations that guide AI safety, will be important for digital trust pros to develop this year and onward.
- Fill AI knowledge gaps—yours or your team’s—with training: According to ISACA’s recent generative AI pulse poll, only six percent of organizations are providing training to all staff on AI, and 54 percent say no AI training is provided, even to teams directly impacted by AI. Building talent that has the right toolset to work with AI and to understand and mitigate various types of associated risk is critical. Goh says that resources available through industry associations like ISACA—which has new AI courses coming this year—can be helpful for growing these skills.
“In the beginning with OpenAI and ChatGPT, it was like a new race car that everyone wanted to try,” says Goh. “But like people not fully understanding a car’s buttons or tech, or its impact on them or the environment around them, we did not completely comprehend the features or full repercussions of this generative AI. In the coming year, our approach to generative AI should be to not fully take our foot off the pedal, but slow down and observe what it is doing to us, just like we would with that race car.”
Additional ISACA experts explored their top 2024 priorities in other key areas in a related blog series, including:
- Audit: Veronica Rose emphasizes the necessity for auditors to take care of themselves and their mental health as a key priority in 2024.
- Cybersecurity: Sandeep Godbole recommends architecting security for the cloud and refocusing security on the human element as priorities for the coming year.
- Privacy: Gary Carrera highlights the importance of championing ethical data use and ethical AI in the new year.
- Risk: Mary Carmichael notes that embracing strategic thinking and business acumen, including by leveraging tools like ISACA’s Risk IT Framework, is one of the key items risk management professionals should have on their to-do list.
Read Goh’s ISACA article on AI priorities here. More AI content, such as the recent white paper, The Promise and Peril of the AI Revolution: Managing Risk, can be found at www.isaca.org/resources/artificial-intelligence. ISACA is continuing to expand its AI resources in 2024, including the release of a suite of courses starting in early Q2.
About ISACA
ISACA® (www.isaca.org) is a global community advancing individuals and organizations in their pursuit of digital trust. For more than 50 years, ISACA has equipped individuals and enterprises with the knowledge, credentials, education, training and community to progress their careers, transform their organizations, and build a more trusted and ethical digital world. ISACA is a global professional association and learning organization that leverages the expertise of its more than 165,000 members who work in digital trust fields such as information security, governance, assurance, risk, privacy and quality. It has a presence in 188 countries, including 225 chapters worldwide. Through its foundation One In Tech, ISACA supports IT education and career pathways for underresourced and underrepresented populations.
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