Davos discussion mulls how to keep AI agents from running wild

AI agents arrived in Davos this week with the question of how to secure them - and prevent agents from becoming the ultimate insider threat - taking center stage during a panel discussion on cyber threats.

"We have enough difficulty getting the humans trained to be effective at preventing cyberattacks. Now I've got to do it for humans and agents in combination," Pearson Chief Technology Officer Dave Treat said.

Pearson's a global education and training company, and Treat was speaking during the question-and-answer part of the panel as an audience member, not a panelist. Like many companies, Pearson is introducing AI agents into its environments, Treat said. 

This opens up a whole new set of challenges for organizations that don't want to miss out on the efficiency gains that AI agents can provide - but they also don't want these agents to access data and systems that should be ...