Top 5 Must Reads: 5/26/23

You already know that every day at InformationWeek there will be original reporting from our team of journalists and unique commentary you won’t see anywhere else. But in case you missed them, here are some of our favorites from this week:

1. Generative AI Limits

Story by Joao-Pierre Ruth

Key Points:

• The potential omnipotence of quantum computers and the moral limits of generative AI were central to a fireside chat last week between noted theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku and Ensono CMO Jonathan Bumba.
• The duo sat down together at an event hosted by Ensono’s Maven Report, of which Bumba is editor-in-chief.
• Another technology development reshaping multiple industries in a short time is generative AI, which Bumba framed during the discussion.

2. AI Regulation

Story by Shane Snider

Key Points:

• Sam Altman, CEO of generative artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, on Tuesday told lawmakers the US needs to “lead” in developing rules and regulations around emerging AI tools like the company’s ChatGPT generative language software.
• Growing fears about AI’s potential for misuse and concerns about what an unchecked AI revolution could mean for the global workforce guided many of the questions lobbed at Altman and Christina Montgomery, IBM’s chief privacy and trust officer.
• Fears about the technology prompted thousands of tech luminaries, including Elon Musk and Andrew Yang, to sign an open letter last month calling for companies to pause AI training for six months. 

3. Digital Twins

Story by  John Edwards

Key Points:

• A digital twin is a technically exact, virtual replica of an object or process that’s twinned to its real-world counterpart via data and information feeds.
• At their core, digital twins use mathematical- or physics-based models to simulate or predict likely behaviors, performance attributes, or outcomes of their analogues in the physical world, explains Kenneth Norton, a senior manager in Deloitte Consulting’s smart manufacturing group.
• Digital twin technology has been available since NASA piloted the concept in the 1960s.

4. AI and CIOs

Story by  Carrie Pallardy

Key Points:

• The proliferation of artificial intelligence has sweeping implications at the individual and enterprise levels.
• The top five functions that report to CISOs are security operations; governance, risk, and compliance; penetration testing; security architecture; and product or application security, according to the 2022 Global Chief Information Security Officer Survey from executive search company Heidrick & Struggles.
• Risk and compliance are core considerations when adopting AI technology. And CISOs need to understand how AI in the hands of threat actors impacts the security of their enterprises and products.

5. Getting Used to AI

Story by Nathan Eddy

Key Points:

• Technology solutions rooted in AI empower teams to monitor and optimize their entire hybrid, multi-cloud topology in real-time.
• Melissa Herrle, vice president of product at OpsRamp, points out AI benefits in IT issue resolution are already being seen today, mainly in reducing alert noise and help desk tickets.
• If one defines “the human touch” as the instinct that humans have from pattern recognition, the experienced help desk consultant can usually find the shortest path or shortcut to the fix.

Latest Layoff Announcements

Original Story by Jessica C. Davis, Updated by Brandon J. Taylor

Key Points:

• As COVID drove everyone online, tech companies hired like crazy. Now we are hitting the COVID tech bust as tech giants shed jobs by the thousands.
• Updated Thursday, May 25, 2023 with layoff announcements from  Alibaba Cloud , Brainly , Jio Mart Reliance Mumbai , and SoundCloud .
• Check back regularly for updates to our IT job layoffs tracker.

REGISTER NOW:

"Best Practices for Effective IT Alerting" Webinar on 5/31 - Sponsored by LogicMonitor

On Wednesday – May 31, beginning at 1pm ET – tune into our online webinar featuring Beth Winters, JD/MBA and Taylor Coppock, who are both Product Marketing Managers at LogicMonitor as our speakers. This live webinar will be moderated by our colleague Terry Sweeney. REGISTER now at the link above.

"Best Practices for Effective IT Alerting"

Are you managing your alerts, or does it feel like they’re managing you? Smooth operations and downtime prevention require alerting on critical issues. It is possible, however, for incorrectly tuned alerts to result in alert system failure.

In addition, managing alerts can be time-consuming, diverting your attention from what's most important - actually resolving the issues.

In the long run, proper setup and tuning of alerts will save you time and help ensure that you receive useful, actionable alerts.

In this webinar, you’ll learn best practices for optimizing your alerting strategy including:

• Setting alert routing and thresholds.
• Avoiding alert and email overload.
• Learning from missed alerts.
• Managing downtime effectively.

"Identifying Blind Spots Through External Attack Surface Management" Webinar on 6/13 - Sponsored by Bitsight

On Tuesday – June 13, beginning at 1pm ET – tune into our online webinar featuring Olivia Bilodeau, Senior Product Marketing Manager and Brian Mulligan VP of Product, Security Performance at Bitsight - as our speakers. This live webinar will be moderated by our colleague Terry Sweeney. REGISTER now at the link above.

"Identifying Blind Spots Through External Attack Surface Management"

Did you know that 69% of organizations have experienced some type of cyber attack in which the attack itself started through the exploit of an unknown, unmanaged, or poorly managed internet-facing asset?

Understanding the scope of your organization’s external attack surface is essential. The key to protecting your digital footprint is to continuously manage it in order to identify risks and prioritize vulnerable areas. Make informed decisions to reduce exposure and empower the growth and success of your organization by gaining visibility into what an attacker sees.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Identify and assess your evolving attack surface.
• Prioritize and remediate vulnerable areas of infrastructure.
• Monitor your digital footprint and protect for the future.

Treasures from the Archives

Story by Curtis Franklin

Key Points:

• Agile discipline is in the process of taking over much of the enterprise world. It's not only because executives like saying their organization is agile.
• Agile methods can be used as part of DevOps -- a portmanteau of "development" and "operations" -- which is also becoming more and more popular in the enterprise world.
• The two words, agile and DevOps, are so popular, and used in so many different ways, some executives and pundits seem to consider them interchangeable. While convenient, such use can lead to real problems.
• To learn more about the ways in which they relate - Click the story above to view the slideshow.

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