“I don’t expect some magical technical capability that is AI-generated that will exploit all the things,” he said.

Mostly, Joyce emphasized the murky and unpredictable nature of the current moment for AI and security, cautioning the security community to “buckle up” for what's likely yet to come. He cautioned, though, that before defenders and communities more broadly come to depend on these tools in daily life, they must first study how generative AI systems can be manipulated and exploited. He cited three areas where the technology is “showing real promise” as an “accelerant for defense”: scanning digital logs, finding patterns in vulnerability exploitation, and helping organizations prioritize security issues. In terms of defense, Joyce seemed hopeful about the potential for generative AI to aid in big data analysis and automation. “That going to be challenging for us in the near term.” Her book is a cautionary tale for all of us, with profound implications for our values, our society, and our very selves.“It is going to help rewrite code and make it in ways that will change the signature and the attributes of it,” Joyce said. Appalled at such a prospect, Angwin conducts a series of experiments to try to protect herself, ranging from quitting Google to carrying a 'burner' phone, showing how difficult it is for an average citizen to resist the dragnets' reach.

In a world where we can be watched in our own homes, where we can no longer keep secrets, and where we can be impersonated, financially manipulated, or even placed in a police lineup, Angwin argues that the greatest long-term danger is that we start to internalize the surveillance and censor our words and thoughts, until we lose the very freedom that makes us unique individuals. In Dragnet Nation, award-winning investigative journalist Julia Angwin reports from the front lines of America's surveillance economy, offering a revelatory and unsettling look at how the government, private companies, and even criminals use technology to indiscriminately sweep up vast amounts of our personal data.

And the federal government, we recently learned, has been conducting a massive data-gathering surveillance operation across the Internet and on our phone lines. Our smartphones and cars transmit our location, enabling us to know what's in the neighborhood but also enabling others to track us. We see online ads from websites we've visited, long after we've moved on to other interests. An inside look at who's watching you, what they know and why it matters.

Dragnet nation