2023 in retrospect

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Charles Dickens

Rise of the AI

2023 was the year that AI took off and conquered the world over throughout all mainstream industries. Language models astonished and frightened everyone, as they showed potential and danger for both flip sides of science and technology. At the Cloud & Cyber EU Expo, I demonstrated language models’ cyber offensive potential, to democratise hacking and fraud for novice cyber criminals.

Funny how just a few years before many of my colleagues were skeptical when I told them with certainty that AI will soon write code and then fix vulnerabilities and bugs. Thanks to ING’s CTO, Ron van Kemenade I eventually got the rare opportunity to assemble a world-class team, and together we initiated research into this domain and its applications for cybersecurity. As life has taught me, sometimes all you need is one person to believe in you at the right place and the right time, to get a chance to advance to the next level.

Cloud Security

In 2023 it was head of ING’s cloud, Jacco Landlust, who believed in me, and pulled me into this rapidly growing domain of cloud security. So on a personal level it was a year of career development into new fields of technology for me. It got me focused on cloud-native security, and engaged in secure API development. It was then a natural next step to share this knowledge with our globally deployed engineers. Leading to workshops set in the Netherlands, Poland and Italy, with remote participants from across the globe.

From Africa to Asia, my lecturing career has taught me that knowledge is game-changing power that must be disseminated equally. Especially in the face of a new AI arms race, where jobs will be taken over by machines faster than most workers can adapt. I’ve come to realise that acquiring cybersecurity skills is not only important for organisations to shift left responsibly. It is a tool for software engineers to remain relevant as software development becomes more and more automated. And it was with great pleasure that I shared this knowledge in 2023 with over 200 engineers. It reminded me the joy of interacting with smart people from different cultures, countries and backgrounds. Because no matter how advanced AI will become in the coming years, it will not replace this common thread that connects all of us and makes us human.

Catastrophe Hits Israel

The end of 2023 also saw the worst times in the history of Israel, as the. Jewish people faced the most horrendous catastrophe since the WW-II Holocaust. With thousands of Palestinians invading Israel, then brutally torturing, raping, slaughtering, mutilating and kidnapping women, children, babies and elderly people. I was shocked to see the worst of humanity come out at times when the world expects the majority of human beings to be enlightened. But after years of an evil Hamas regime depriving children of modern education, teaching nothing but zealotry and bigotry, the worst case scenario broke out.

It was then, with a bleeding heart, that I had seen the old blood thirsty antisemitism make a comeback to mainstream media and hit the streets around the world. I was horrified to hear calls for genocide against the Jewish people, resonating old Nazi propaganda, by lynch mobs on the streets of Europe and American Ivy league campuses. As I write these lines, the worst war in Israel’s history is still ongoing, with many young soldiers sacrificing their lives daily to protect the people of Israel. The country is constantly being bombarded by Syria, Lebanon, Gaza and Yemen, turning life in Israel into a living nightmare.

Conclusion

So how do I conclude 2023?

Well, with the rise of artificial intelligence we also saw the demise of human intelligence. And if we continue on this path to create super-beings in our images, I fear we are doomed. With so much hatred, bigotry, ignorance and fanaticism spreading around the globe, what kind of example are we setting for these artificial beings we are now nurturing? For it is on the basis of human knowledge and beliefs that we are feeding and growing this new intelligence. And what will become of such new creatures if they take after us?

I therefore hope and pray that mankind takes a different path in 2024. Destructive as we are in nature, it’s not too late to change. We just have to wake up everyday and think long and hard what kind of world we would like to leave for our children. Then let this new year bring new hope and perspectives, knowledge and mindfulness. Let us question reality and justice instead of spreading fake news and hatred. Let’s try to push ourselves toward fairness and equality. Remember the golden rule underlying all societies:

“Love thy neighbor as you love thyself”