Use of AI will bring benefits to telecoms, but also risks

Artificial intelligence is a tool telecoms will increasingly use to manage networks and enhance various products, but its susceptibility to hacking will also pose big security-related concerns, especially if used for critical infrastructure, according to experts. AI, which is software programmed to think and operate like humans, is a fast-growing technology that will help automate functions in the economy previously done by humans. It’s also a technology that’s been drawing government attention. The federal budget, which committed to growing “Canada’s advantage in artificial intelligence,” pledged $125 million to “launch a Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy for research and talent,” while Ontario also recently pledged support for AI in its own budget, with a $50-million commitment to a research facility for AI called the Vector Institute backed by Alphabet Inc. “Our economy is several trillion dollars and AI is going to be a healthy portion of that,” Stuart Jack, a partner at Nordicity, said in a phone interview. “We’re talking a societal revolution in terms of our role in the economy.” While some AI is in use already, what will make the next generation of the technology different will be its ubiquity, Jack said. Telecommunications companies already use AI to manage their network, partly for cost-efficiency purposes, Gerry Wall, president of telecom consulting company Wall Communications, said in an email. “With the continuous data from a huge number of users, an AI system can predict events such as congestion,” which can help avoid outages, or it can be used for coordinating functions including billing, customer service and repair, Wall said. Wall added AI can identify and correct problems on complex and fast-growing networks quicker than humans. Telecoms also use AI to provide enhanced cyber security and offer customers AI-based services to better manage such things as electrical systems, David Ticoll, a distinguished fellow at the University of Toronto’s Innovation Policy Lab, said in a phone interview. Wall said those services currently include smart home monitoring and management that “will be improved with new products derived from AI capability.” Additionally, Ticoll said AI can help manage those telecoms’ media products, such as BCE Inc.’s Crave TV, by customizing services for customers and managing the applications behind those services. Wall said that customization comes from AI collecting data on what users use the network for and that “potentially it can also identify behavioural patterns on the Internet that allow the operator to understand and commercialize individual user preferences.” Both Bell and Rogers Communications Inc. declined to comment for this story, while Telus Corp. did not respond to a request for comment. But due to the software nature of AI — Jack said the rule is anything that is programmable can be hacked — there are trade-offs. “We should have concerns about third party software providers, we should be concerned about outside hackers and we should also have concerns about failure — bugs, software failure and the like,” Ian Kerr, Canada Research Chair in Ethics, Law and Technology and professor at the University of Ottawa, said in an interview. The problem becomes even more apparent when that software — in many cases developed by such global data management companies as Facebook Inc., Apple Inc. and Alphabet — is used to manage the network that critical infrastructure runs on. Jack gave the example of Brookfield Asset Management Inc., which runs power-generating facilities. “How do they get the information from one site to another site? Well, they use the telecommunications networks.” “You can take down one of the world’s premiere managers of energy networks by hacking into their network, which is carried over the telecoms’ network, or the underlying telecom network,” Jack said. The problem is amplified, Jack said, when all the data flows are centralized over the fibre backbone. While Jack said the telecoms are already vulnerable to hacking, the risk is multiplied because the networks that are using AI are all running on the fibre backbone, run by the telecoms. AI can also be used to manage data used and generated by the Internet of Things. For example, Ticoll added a typical automated vehicle will generate four terabytes of data per day. “That’s a lot of stuff,” he said, noting that telecoms will play the middleman role of being responsible for transferring that data “quickly from Point A to Point B." “There’s going to have to be some type of cloud-type storage mechanism for all that data,” Ticoll added. Noting that not all the data will be the same, “you need some pretty advanced decision processes in order to make those calls, so potentially AI can help with that.” Kerr used the example of a care robot to illustrate the need for the cloud. “You want that robot to be able to leverage and exploit data that it can’t itself explore or that it interacts with another device,” Kerr said. “Whether we’re talking about automated vehicles or we’re talking about a care robot in the home, those things are all going to interconnected,” Kerr said. And all of this, Jack added, is vulnerable: “If you’re using the telecom networks, then guess what? You can attack the algorithm,” he said. “The weakness tends to be in the data sets that have to be carried over the telecommunications network that are necessary to actually operate AI.” A recent Juniper Research report found companies globally, by 2022, are expected to spend part of $135 billion in spending on cyber security on AI-based protection and coverage for the Internet of Things. Nick Galletto, global cyber risk services leader at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., said in a phone interview as those functions move to the cloud, monitoring, detection and prevention capabilities must also extend to that realm as well. “Either with infrastructure or whatever whole systems you’re using to run this, there’s some basic walking and tackling that needs to be done regarding this,” he said. “If your systems and your networks aren’t patched appropriately and there are vulnerabilities, then there’s a high probability that those vulnerabilities will be exploited.” Furthermore, Kerr said an additional challenge will be the lack of control over the AI software because it will likely be developed by a third party. “Whether it’s a hacker or whether it’s the corporate entity that supplies the services…there is a relinquishment or loss of control because you don’t own the software,” Kerr said. He added that buyers of the software will also be at the whim of those providers for updates, including security-related ones. Wall said how telecoms will get involved directly in IoT interaction is still open for speculation. But he added it will also be a regulatory question, raising the CRTC’s recent decision on net neutrality, which reinforced rules around telecoms treating Internet traffic in a data-agnostic manner. Still, Ticoll said because AI is designed to “simulate the thought processes of a very smart person,” it can actually be a boon for security, despite its vulnerabilities — for example, by using "very specialized AI applications that are focused on those kinds of problems." — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Use of AI will bring benefits to telecoms, but also risks

News | May 1, 2017

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Use of AI will bring benefits to telecoms, but also risks

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