Keren Katz exposes novel risks posed by GenAI and agentic AI while reflecting on unintended malfeasance, surprisingly common insider threats and weak security postures. Keren and Kimberly discuss threats amplified by agentic AI; self-inflicted exposures observed in Fortune 500 companies; normalizing risky behavior; unintentional threats; non-determinism as a risk; users as an attack vector; the OWASP State of Agentic AI and Governance report; ransomware 2025; mapping use cases and user intent; preemptive security postures; agentic behavior analysis; proactive AI/agentic security policies and incident response plans. Keren Katz is Senior Group Manager of Threat Research, Product Management and AI at Tenable, a contributor at both the Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) and Forbes. Keren is a global leader in AI and cybersecurity, specializing in Generative AI threat detection. Related ResourcesArticle: The Silent Breach: Why Agentic AI Demands New OversightState of Agentic AI Security and Governance (whitepaper): https://genai.owasp.org/resource/state-of-agentic-ai-security-and-governance-1-0/ The LLM Top 10: https://genai.owasp.org/llm-top-10/A transcript of this episode is here.
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To Be or Not to Be Agentic with Maximilian Vogel
Maximilian Vogel dismisses tales of agentic unicorns, relying instead on human expertise, rational objectives, and rigorous design to deploy enterprise agentic systems. Maximilian and Kimberly discuss what an agentic system is (emphasis on system); why agency in agentic AI resides with humans; engineering agentic workflows; agentic AI as a mule not a unicorn; establishing confidence and accuracy; codesigning with business/domain experts; why 100% of anything is not the goal; focusing on KPIs not features; tricks to keep models from getting tricked; modeling agentic workflows on human work; live data and human-in-the-loop validation; AI agents as a support team and implications for human work. Maximilian Vogel is the Co-Founder of BIG PICTURE, a digital transformation boutique specializing in the use of AI for business innovation. Maximilian enables the strategic deployment of safe, secure, and reliable agentic AI systems.Related ResourcesMedium: https://medium.com/@maximilian.vogelA transcript of this episode is here.
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The Problem of Democracy with Henrik Skaug Sætra
Henrik Skaug Sætra considers the basis of democracy, the nature of politics, the tilt toward digital sovereignty and what role AI plays in our collective human society. Henrik and Kimberly discuss AI’s impact on human comprehension and communication; core democratic competencies at risk; politics as a joint human endeavor; conflating citizens with customers; productively messy processes; the problem of democracy; how AI could change what democracy means; whether democracy is computable; Google’s experiments in democratic AI; AI and digital sovereignty; and a multidisciplinary path forward. Henrik Skaug Sætra is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Digitalisation and Head of the Technology and Sustainable Futures research group at Oslo University. He is also the CEO of Pathwais.eu connecting strategy, uncertainty, and action through scenario-based risk management.Related ResourcesGoogle Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pvgdIpUAAAAJ&hl=enHow to Save Democracy from AI (Book – Norwegian): https://www.norli.no/9788202853686AI for the Sustainable Development Goals (Book): https://www.amazon.com/AI-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Everything/dp/1032044063Technology and Sustainable Development: The Promise and Pitfalls of Techno-Solutionism (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Technology-Sustainable-Development-Pitfalls-Techno-Solutionism-ebook/dp/B0C17RBTVLA transcript of this episode is here.
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Generating Safety Not Abuse with Dr. Rebecca Portnoff
Dr. Rebecca Portnoff generates awareness of the threat landscape, enablers, challenges and solutions to the complex but addressable issue of online child sexual abuse. Rebecca and Kimberly discuss trends in online child sexual abuse; pillars of impact and harm; how GenAI expands the threat landscape; personalized targeting and bespoke abuse; Thorn’s Safety by Design Initiative; scalable prevention strategies; technical and legal barriers; standards, consensus and commitment; building better from the beginning; accountability as an innovative goal; and not confusing complex with unsolvable. Dr. Rebecca Portnoff is the Vice President of Data Science at Thorn, a non-profit dedicated to protecting children from sexual abuse. Read Thorn’s seminal Safety by Design paper, bookmark the Research Center to stay updated and support Thorn’s critical work by donating here. Related Resources Thorn’s Safety by Design Initiative (News): https://www.thorn.org/blog/generative-ai-principles/ Safety by Design Progress Reports: https://www.thorn.org/blog/thorns-safety-by-design-for-generative-ai-progress-reports/ Thorn + SIO AIG-CSAM Research (Report): https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/ml-csam-report A transcript of this episode is here.
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Inclusive Innovation with Hiwot Tesfaye
Hiwot Tesfaye disputes the notion of AI givers and takers, challenges innovation as an import, highlights untapped global potential, and charts a more inclusive course. Hiwot and Kimberly discuss the two camps myth of inclusivity; finding innovation everywhere; meaningful AI adoption and diffusion; limitations of imported AI; digital colonialism; low-resource languages and illiterate LLMs; an Icelandic success story; situating AI in time and place; employment over automation; capacity and skill building; skeptical delight and making the case for multi-lingual, multi-cultural AI. Hiwot Tesfaye is a Technical Advisor in Microsoft’s Office of Responsible AI and a Loomis Council Member at the Stimson Center where she helped launch the Global Perspectives: Responsible AI Fellowship. Related Resources#35 Navigating AI: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities a conversation with Hiwot TesfayeA transcript of this episode is here.
How is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) shaping our human experience?
Kimberly Nevala ponders the reality of AI with a diverse group of innovators, advocates and data scientists. Ethics and uncertainty. Automation and art. Work, politics and culture. In real life and online. Contemplate AI’s impact, for better and worse.
All presentations represent the opinions of the presenter and do not represent the position or the opinion of SAS.
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