The Manifesto

Mission

In an increasingly digital word, we envision a secure digital realm where the scarcity of cyber talent is eventually offset by AI. This AI layer should not only alleviate professionals from routine tasks, but also innovatively enhance cybersecurity, ensuring a safer and more resilient operational environment for all.
Our mission as CISOs4AI is to act as stewards in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Harnessing our security expertise, as we seek to seamlessly integrate AI into the cybersecurity domain. We advocate for its responsible application, ensuring that AI empowers professionals, enriches the field, and enforces unparalleled cybersecurity standards.

The Rationale

At the heart of our journey lies a quest for understanding. Why place CISOs at the forefront of AI’s integration? Why stress on innovation? And most importantly, why compassing AI in this journey? Here’s our rationale.

1. The Role of CISOs

As CISOs, we view ourselves as living bridges between eras. With a long experience in Cybersecurity, we appreciate the merit of past lessons and the significance of applying them to forthcoming challenges. We commit to merging the wisdom of experience with the zest for innovation, creating a continuum of progress.

2. The Imperative of Innovation

While we already secured the innovations of the past (mobile applications, cloud, remote workplace, …) we acknowledge that innovation shouldn’t be severed from the roots of the past. We are devoted to fostering an innovation that is deeply rooted in tradition, using our experience to distinguish between fleeting trends and solutions that offer lasting impact.

3. The Promise of AI

Artificial Intelligence will be the bridge towards future cybersecurity. Through our experiences, we understand that AI and its era, has the potential to bolster our defences, predict emerging threats and allow organisations to be more resilient. Heightened resilience, in a world that moves more and more at machine speed, must gain machine support to respond accordingly. We are dedicated to harnessing AI to build appropriate defences that safeguard valuable assets against increasingly sophisticated, digitally driven, attacks.

Values

Beneath every action, every strategy, and every decision, lie our core values. These aren’t just principles; they represent the compass that guides our bearings, in the evolving landscape of AI and cybersecurity.

1. Stewardship of the Digital Realm:

We understand the profound impact of our decisions. As guardians of cybersecurity, we ensure that every choice upholds the safety, security, and integrity of the digital space.

2. Respect for History, Eyes on the Future:

Drawing from our deep-seated experiences, we value lessons from the past. Yet, we are not bound by them. We’re ever evolving, anticipating future challenges and ensuring readiness.

3. Innovation Rooted in Ethical Principles:

We champion AI’s transformative power, but we are adamant that it should be harnessed with an unwavering commitment to ethical principles, user privacy, and fairness.

4. Sustainability & Responsibility:

Beyond digital safety, we value environmental sustainability. Our commitment to technology solutions reflects a broader promise to foster a healthier, more sustainable planet for future generations.

5. Empowerment through AI:

We believe in the strength of AI as a tool to enhance, not replace, the human role in cybersecurity. We advocate for its role in elevating human potential, freeing us from mundane tasks, and allowing professionals to tackle higher-order challenges.

6. Continuous Learning & Growth:

The technological landscape is always changing. We pledge to a culture of continuous learning, adaptation, and forward-thinking to always stay ahead of potential new threats.

7. Collaboration through a Diverse and Inclusive Community:

Cyber threats know no boundaries. We emphasise the importance of global collaboration, fostering a community where knowledge, tools, and best practices are shared for the greater good.

CISOs4AI Commitments

A vision without action remains a mere dream. As CISOs navigating the AI realm, our commitments are clear, actionable promises, ensuring that our vision translates to real-world impact.

1. Principle-Driven AI

Integrity First: We pledge to uphold the highest standards of integrity, ensuring that AI systems are developed, deployed, and maintained ethically and responsibly.
Ethical Interactions: In a world where our primary interface with the digital realm might be through AI-driven conversations, we emphasise the importance of ethical, transparent, and respectful interactions, ensuring that this AI entity respects individual rights and societal values. Wherever the conversations become physical interactions this aspect is even more important, requiring an extensive application of basic human rights and safety-first principles.
Sustainable Development: Recognizing the environmental footprint of digital technologies, we pledge to advocate for and adopt sustainable AI practices. This includes energy-efficient algorithms, eco-friendly infrastructure, and responsible resource utilisation. Thanks to the latest scientific advancements we expect the demand for energy optimised devices will be growing in the future, and we fully support this energy revolution.
Accountability: We advocate for AI operations that are both comprehensible and accountable. While the intricacies of AI might make full transparency challenging if not impossible, it’s crucial that stakeholders have insights into how decisions are derived. By clarifying methodologies, data sources, and decision frameworks, we aim to demystify AI’s operations, ensuring a balance between advanced technology and human understanding.
Data Integrity & Robustness: As AI systems, particularly LLMs, learn and evolve based on the vast amounts of data they process, the integrity and authenticity of this input data become paramount. Recognizing the susceptibility of AI models to data poisoning and biases, we pledge to prioritize the integrity and robustness of the data sources. It’s essential that AI is built and operates on clean, unbiased, and representative data to ensure meaningful and reliable outputs. Furthermore, we advocate for stringent controls over the AI learning process, guarding against unintentional drifts or malicious manipulations. In an era
where subtle corruptions can significantly skew AI behaviors, our commitment is to ensure an LLM that is as trustworthy as the data it’s nurtured on.
Planetary Protection: Beyond the digital realm, we acknowledge our duty to the planet. We will ensure that the growth and integration of AI into the Internet do not compromise our planet’s health, biodiversity, or natural resources. If anything, AI is changing the way we can look at our planet, with extended abilities to prevent and correct dangerous actions and activities.

2. End-to-end Security

Prevent and defend from Malicious Use: We will develop strategies to protect AI systems from malicious attacks, ensuring that they cannot be exploited to harm individuals or society.
Adaptable and Evolving Defences: Recognizing that threats are ever-evolving, we pledge to develop AI solutions that adapt and learn from the past, and from weak signals, to uncover novel threat vectors, providing future-proof defence.
Continuous Monitoring: AI systems will be continuously monitored for vulnerabilities, with timely updates and patches applied to address potential threats. Self-correction will probably respond to the need to avoid a fast-processing system to remain knowingly vulnerable beyond tolerable levels.

3. Staying Ahead on AI Cybersecurity

Proactive Engagement: As the boundaries between AI and the Internet blur, we commit to staying ahead of the curve, proactively engaging with the emerging reality where the Internet itself eventually becomes an interactive AI entity.
Long-Term Vision: We commit to a vision that looks beyond immediate advancements, focusing on the long-term implications of an AI-driven Internet. This includes preparing for infrastructural changes, ensuring robust security, and fostering an AI ecosystem that prioritises the well-being of both humanity and our planet.
Continuous Learning: Recognizing the rapidly evolving nature of AI, we commit to facilitating ongoing education and training opportunities for professionals, ensuring that they remain at the forefront of AI safety and security advancements.
Feedback & Iteration: Understanding that perfection is something that can never be reached in Cybersecurity and that Cybersecurity is a journey and not a landing pad, we commit to seeking regular feedback from Organizations and the security community, using it as a cornerstone for continuous improvement.
Engagement: While we assume that the future of work will be flexible, and that AI Offset will help humanity thrive, even from the “Couch”, we strongly believe that supporting Communities, Events and Villages is a cornerstone of growth for knowledge and innovation, and we commit to Engage our community and contribute to other communities with the same strength and commitment.

4. Empowering Everyone with AI Cybersecurity

Democratising AI for Security: We are dedicated to making AI-driven security tools accessible to all, regardless of their tech-savviness or financial capacity. Tending to a fast adoption mindset informs our actions, in an effort to reduce complexity from the early stages.
Best Practices: We will develop, discuss and disseminate best practices for AI safety and security, tailored for enterprise environments, ensuring that businesses can adopt AI responsibly and effectively. We also recognize that vertical defining industries and government entities and critical infrastructures have their special needs, and we will splice our contributions accordingly.
Risk Management: Recognizing the unique challenges AI poses in enterprise settings, we will provide guidance on risk assessment, management, and mitigation, ensuring that AI adoption aligns with organisational goals and values. At the same time we will follow diverse and necessary paths when the objective crosses the enterprise walls.

5. Cultivating AI and Cyber culture

Training and Education: We commit to continuous learning, ensuring that we stay updated with the latest advancements in AI safety and security. As per our aforementioned principles, the past informs the future, thus we believe that every technological revolution implies taking advantage of and re-evaluating our knowledge in all tangent sciences and disciplines.
Public Awareness: We will engage with the public, raising awareness about the importance of AI safety and security, and empowering individuals with the knowledge to use AI responsibly. A safer state begins with safer citizens.

6. Embracing the AI Journey, from www to AI-driven

Infrastructure Preparedness: Recognizing the profound infrastructural changes this evolution might bring, we will work towards ensuring that our digital infrastructure is robust, secure, and capable of supporting this new form of AI-driven Internet.
Holistic Integration: We will advocate for a holistic approach to integrating AI into the very fabric of the Internet, ensuring that it serves as an enabler rather than a disruptor, enhancing user experiences while safeguarding individual freedoms.

7. Humans at Heart

No Harm Principle: The safety of humans will always be our primary concern. We commit to ensuring that AI systems do not cause harm, albeit physical, psychological, or social.
Human-in-the-Loop: We emphasise the importance of human oversight in AI decision-making and reality-impacting processes, ensuring that machines complement human judgement rather than replace it. We do not ignore the possibility of a conscious evolution of the AI, seeing this adage as a precursor for the time it will eventually, or intentionally, manifest.

8. Collaborative Approach

Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Recognizing that AI safety and security spans beyond technical domains, we will collaborate with experts from diverse fields, including ethics, psychology, and law.
Open Dialogue: We encourage open discussions and debates on AI safety and security, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and collective growth.
Research Collaboration: We will foster collaborations with academic institutions, supporting research that advances the field of AI safety and security.

9. Privacy First

Data Protection: In line with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other regional privacy laws, we commit to ensuring that AI systems respect and uphold individual data rights, ensuring transparent, fair, and secure processing of personal data.
Consent Management: We emphasise the importance of informed consent in AI interactions, ensuring that users are aware of and have control over how their data is used.

10. Regulatory Advocacy

Policy Engagement: We will actively engage with policymakers, advocating for regulations that prioritise AI safety and security without stifling innovation.
Global Standards: We will work towards the establishment of global standards for AI safety and security, ensuring consistency and coherence in AI practices worldwide.

Conclusion

As stewards of information security in the age of AI, we recognize the weight of our responsibility. This manifesto is not just a declaration of our intentions but a call to action for all stakeholders in the AI ecosystem, and to Cybersecurity leaders, professionals and passionate subject matter experts.
Together, we can ensure that AI serves as a force for good, enhancing our lives while safeguarding our values.