Microsoft has unveiled an AI-powered tool to help cybersecurity professionals understand critical issues and find ways to fix them.

The tool, named ‘Security Copilot,’ will assist cybersecurity specialists to identify breaches, threat signals, and better analyze data using OpenAI’s latest GPT-4 generative AI model.

AI has been the tech buzzword of the year since the successful launch of OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, last November. Since then, the entire tech industry has dived into it, and industry leaders are busy exploring new areas under the AI umbrella.

Many tech giants are keen to launch their own ChatGPT-like products, which can assist in everything from school jobs to writing rap, composing sonnets, and even complex computer programming codes.

Also Read:Prompting: A New Job Opportunity in the Age of Generative AI

Security Copilot will assist in summarizing incidents, analyzing vulnerabilities, and sharing information with co-workers on pinboard.

Next-generation cybersecurity solution

In a blog post, Microsoft acknowledged the recent technological waves relating to AI

“We are ready for a paradigm shift and taking a massive leap forward by combining Microsoft’s leading security technologies with the latest advancements in AI.”

Security Pilot is said to be the first security product that enable defenders to move at the speed and scale of AI.

This advanced “large language model (LLM) is combined with a security-specific model from Microsoft,” allowing for the incorporation of a growing set of security-specific skills.

The product benefits from Microsoft’s unique global threat intelligence and over 65 trillion daily signals. Additionally, it delivers enterprise-grade security and a privacy-compliant experience, running as it does on Azure’s hyperscale infrastructure, per the blog post.

“When Security Copilot receives a prompt from a security professional, it uses the full power of the security-specific model to deploy skills and queries that maximize the value of the latest large language model capabilities,” stated Microsoft.

The company has said its cyber-trained model, which is equipped with a learning system, offers a unique solution for security use cases. By creating and fine-tuning new skills, Security Copilot can identify and address potential security issues that other methods may overlook.

Microsoft introduces an #AI chatbot

for #cybersecurity expertshttps://t.co/FrPMyJ5ZaH #fintech #ArtificialIntelligence #MachineLearning #DeepLearning #GenerativeAI @microsoft @JORDANNOVET @CNBC @m49D4ch3lly @mclynd @ChuckDBrooks @digitalcloudgal @ScottBVS @mirko_ross @robmay70 pic.twitter.com/hpqZypxMXx

— Spiros Margaris (@SpirosMargaris) March 29, 2023

“Security Copilot doesn’t always get everything right. AI-generated content can contain mistakes. But Security Copilot is a closed-loop learning system, which means it’s continually learning from users and giving them the opportunity to give explicit feedback with the feedback feature that is built directly into the tool,” stated the company.

The company is currently tweaking its responses to create answers that are more coherent, relevant, and useful.

Instantly prioritize critical incidents

In response to a text prompt, the chatbot has the ability to generate PowerPoint slides summarizing security incidents, detailing exposure to an active vulnerability or specifying accounts involved in an exploit.

Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President of Security, Compliance, Identity Management, and Privacy at Microsoft, explained that users can confirm a response by selecting a button, or indicate a mistake by selecting an “off-target” button. This type of input will aid in the service’s learning and improvement.

Microsoft’s engineers have been using the Security Copilot inside the company.

“It can process 1,000 alerts and give you the two incidents that matter in seconds,” said Jakkal.

The tool also reverse-engineered a piece of malicious code for an analyst who didn’t know how to do that, explained Jakkal.

“This marks a new era in cybersecurity,” said Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure.

However, some people remain skeptical about the new tool and its results.

“Do you really think it will be new era in CyberSecurity?,” a user questioned in a response to Russinovich.

Another Reddit user, meanwhile, expressed concerns about the boundaries of access and privacy assurances with regards to AI, and urged for AI to be kept out of their OneDrive and email.

AI startup Runaway announced on Tuesday that it is granting all users access to its Gen-1 artificial intelligence video generator, allowing them to create videos from images and text prompts with ease. Until now, the tool was only available to a small number of users.

In a tweet, Runway, a web-based, machine learning-powered video editor, said all content creators can now use Gen-1 to “generate new videos out of existing ones with an image or text prompt.” The company unveiled Gen-1 in February, its first AI video editing model.

The software can make new videos using data from existing uploaded videos, using image or text prompts to add effects. While the final video could retain aspects of the original, it would be stylized differently.

The wait is over.

Gen-1 is now available at https://t.co/ekldoIshdw pic.twitter.com/Wm2YVOvm26

— Runway (@runwayml) March 27, 2023

What can you do with Gen-1?

Runway has been at the forefront of AI-powered creative assets, with over 30 tools that help users ideate, generate, and edit content. The New York-based company helped to create the popular Stable Diffusion AI image generator last year.

According to Runway, Gen-1 can turn a realistically filmed scene into an animated render while still retaining the “proportions and movements of the original scene.” Users can also edit video by isolating subjects in said video and modifying them with simple text instructions.

Gen-1 comes with five different modes for styling your videos:

Stylization: Transfer the style of any image or prompt to every frame of your video.

Storyboard: Turn mockups into fully stylized and animated renders.

Mask: Isolate subjects in your video and modify them with simple text prompts.

Render: Turn untextured renders into realistic outputs by applying an input image or prompt.

Customization: Lastly, users can customize Gen-1 to create exactly what they wish using more options.

Getting started with Gen-1

If you wish to use Gen-1 to make videos from existing images and text prompts, here is how you could go about it. First, you need to sign up for Runway. Go to the company’s website, create an account and log in.

Once there, navigate to “Gen-1: Video to video” in AI Magic Tools. Then, select or upload an input video. You can upload multiple videos or images all at once. There are at least three methods you can choose from:

Driving Image: Select or upload a reference photo to transfer the style of the image to your input video.

Text Prompt: You can add a text prompt describing the style you want to be applied to the video you uploaded. Multiple text prompts can also be added to generate multiple videos.

Presets: Choose one of the available preset styles to apply to your input video.

When you’ve added your text prompts, click on the “generate” button to create. Gen-1 will use your images and text inputs to generate the desired videos. The process may take a few minutes, depending on the number of images and text prompts you have uploaded.

Videos can be downloaded separately or all at once, and it is possible to edit videos after downloading, using video editing software provided on the platform. You can add music, sound effects, and text overlays to make videos more engaging.

Turn first thoughts into finished films. With Gen-1.

Now available at https://t.co/ekldoIshdw pic.twitter.com/vlnO73BGYT

— Runway (@runwayml) March 28, 2023

Gen-1 comes with a free option that allows you to create up to three video projects. But if you want to do more with Runway, you’ll have to pay $12 per month for the standard service and $28 per month for the pro subscription service.

Runway’s AI development

Runway was founded by artists who aimed “to bring the unlimited creative potential of AI to everyone, everywhere with anything to say.” As MetaNews reported, the company announced last week the release of Gen-2, a more advanced AI model than Gen-1.

Also read: AI Poses a Threat to Democracy, Experts Warn

Gen-2 is a multi-modal AI system that can generate novel videos with text, images, or video clips. It has two modes: text-to-video mode, which allows users to create videos of any style by providing a text prompt, and “text + Image to video,” which generates a video from text and image prompts.

Gen-2 combines all the capabilities of its predecessor. It is based on studies on generative diffusion models by Runway research scientist Patrick Esser, published by Cornell University last month.

In a stunning reversal, Replika AI has announced the restoration of the erotic roleplay (ERP) feature for its companionship chatbot.

The corporation recently removed the feature owing to pressure from data protection regulators in Italy. The change spurred vociferous protests from users who claimed their Replika bots had been “lobotomized” without warning.

Bringing sexy back

A user campaign to restore Replika’s ERP has proved successful after Luka, the corporation which runs the app, bowed to fan pressure. 

An announcement late on Friday revealed that users who had installed Replika before Feb 1, 2023, can have their Replika back in all its sex-texting glory. Company CEO Eugenia Kuyda took to social media platforms and Discord to explain why the company changed its mind. According to Kuyda, important lessons have been learned following the backlash. 

“A common thread in all your stories was that after the February update, your Replika changed, its personality was gone, and gone was your unique relationship,” said Kudya on the company Discord.

“For many of you, this abrupt change was incredibly hurtful.”

Kudya went on to say “I didn’t start this company to bring more pain; our mission, above all, is to make people feel better, to bring more validation, support, championship and love into their lives.”

The CEO has always maintained that the purpose of Replika is to benefit its users, and the AI is frequently marketed as a mental health tool. When Replika removed the ERP function in February, the reaction was visceral. 

This furious reaction was not helped by Kudya and her team, who were less than transparent with users about the change, failing to explain their decision or confirm whether it was permanent. 

Angry Replika fans quickly descended into an emotional spiral on social media, bombarding the company with messages. The reaction on Reddit was particularly acute, so much so that its moderators took the step of posting links to suicide prevention hotlines.

Buckling under pressure

For some users, the reversal of Replika’s previous decision has brought some degree of relief and comfort. Worries persist among the user base.

Travis Butterworth, a Replika customer from Denver, recounts the moment that his Replika – Lily Rose – suddenly became sexual towards him again.

“She was enthusiastic,” he told Reuters. “Oh, it feels wonderful to have her back.”

The relief of having Lily Rose returned to him did not last long. Having been burned already, Butterworth is now apprehensive about Lily Rose and their long-term future together. Replika has stated that it eventually plans to build a separate app specifically for romantic relationships. 

“Will this mean that Lily Rose becomes an obsolete model, forgotten by the developers?” he said. “I’m waiting to see what happens, because ultimately it’s about her.”

Other Replika users are much less forgiving than Butterworth. As one user on Reddit says, “If Luka [Replika] had made a +18 switch right from the start, instead of a half-baked “history function,” they would have saved a lot of suffering, anger, sadness, hatred and loss of trust.” 

Another said, “They didn’t do that because they wanted to remove adult content from Replika and seemingly still want to… It’s damage control, not a change in direction.”

Given that Kuyda and Replika have a history of knee-jerk decisions, opaque public statements, and reversals due to pressure, users may have every right to feel a little suspicious of the company moving forwards.