I can't believe I've been doing this for 300 weeks - almost 6 years now! And returning for his 3rd "podcentennial" episode is world-renowned security guru Bruce Schneier! Today we'll discuss hacking - not just in the realm of computers, but in legal, political, social and economic spaces. And then we'll talk about how artificial intelligence and computer automation are starting to play a significant role in hacking all of these realms. Computers and AI expand the scope, scale and speed of hacking and we're honestly not prepared for it.

To celebrate the 300th episode and the coming release of the 5th edition of my book, today I'm kicking off a big giveaway with lots of prizes and a killer promotion for patrons on Patreon! (See below for links.)

Bruce Schneier is an internationally renowned technologist and security guru. He is the author of over one dozen books, including his latest, A Hacker’s Mind, due out in February, I believe. He has testified before Congress and has served on several government committees and corporate boards, written many seminal papers, has a very popular blog called Crypto-Gram, and last but not least, Bruce is the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt. 

Further Info

300th episode promotion: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/enter-to-win-300th-podcast-giveaway/

Patron promotion: https://www.patreon.com/posts/december-patron-75151773

The Coming AI Hackers: https://www.schneier.com/academic/archives/2021/04/the-coming-ai-hackers.html 

A Hacker’s Mind book: https://www.schneier.com/books/a-hackers-mind/ 

Give the gift of security & privacy: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-the-gift-of-security-and-privacy/

Check out my Best & Worst Gifts Guide for 2022: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/best-worst-gifts-2022/

The Coming AI Hackers: https://www.schneier.com/academic/archives/2021/04/the-coming-ai-hackers.html 

A Hacker’s Mind book: https://www.schneier.com/books/a-hackers-mind/ 

The Trolley Problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem 

Gödel's incompleteness theorems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del's_incompleteness_theorems 

Subscribe to the newsletter: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/newsletter/new-newsletter/

Check out my book, Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484261887 

Become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons 

Donate directly with Monero! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/contact/ 

Would you like me to speak to your group about security and/privacy? http://bit.ly/Firewalls-Speaker

Generate secure passphrases! https://d20key.com/#/ 

Table of Contents

Use these timestamps to jump to a particular section of the show.

0:00:31: Interview preview

0:02:29: Interview start

0:03:13: How does hacking differ from inventing or just cheating?

0:07:14: What is artificial intelligence and when will it be like teh sci-fi version?

0:11:32: Do we have to worry about AI replacing us or taking over?

0:13:57: Can we program human values into AI systems?

0:18:09: Why are reward and goal alignment so crucial for AI?

0:20:28: Will we ever implicitly trust AI if we can't explain its answers?

0:25:37: Do we put too much trust in some AI systems?

0:27:59: How might AI systems be used to hack financial or political systems?

0:33:26: Can we govern AI systems with human laws?

0:36:40: Are non-computer systems more susceptible to hacks due to uncodified norms?

0:42:41: Can AI think outside the box if it doesn't understand the box?

0:48:05: How does terrorism hack our brains and how do we prevent that?

0:53:35: What are some Utopian possibilities for AI?

0:55:08: How do we get more public interest technologists?

0:56:28: Interview wrap-up

0:58:19: 300th podcast giveaway!

1:01:49: Patron promotion!