Q&A with Ben Haynes, CEO at Monospace Inc & Project Lead at Directus

Media 7 | February 3, 2021

Ben Haynes, CEO at Monospace Inc & Project Lead at Directus, comes with a background that is evenly split between design and development, and he has founded several highly successful digital agencies at this intersection of the creative and technical realms. His experience spans over 20 years of building innovative and high-profile digital experiences for industry-leading clients such as Google, Snapchat, AT&T, AOL, SoulCycle, IDEO, MoMA, Interbrand, HP, and the U.S. Government.

With remote work now the norm, companies need to adopt technologies that go beyond text-only chats and scheduled Zoom meetings.



MEDIA 7: How did you come up with the idea of Directus?
BEN HAYNES:
In the early 2000's I was working on client work for my agency, trying desperately to avoid building websites with WordPress. Since our engineers preferred to work with the database directly, it was then that I had the idea to recreate “phpMyAdmin” (a highly technical database administration tool) as a safer and more intuitive CMS.

Essentially, Directus uses an approach we call “database mirroring” to dynamically provide a powerful API layer for developers and an intuitive App for non-technical users. This allows organizations to democratize their data while maintaining complete end-to-end control. The idea is pretty simple in concept, but quite complex to build properly.
To ensure we had the broad adoption required to test all use-cases, and to nurture a spirit of openness, transparency, and good-will, we decided to make our premium platform completely free and open-source.

M7: Recently, you have also launched Monospace- the legal wing of Directus. What has been your approach towards branding the company, its products, and services?
BH:
Monospace grew from our need to decouple our digital agency (RANGER Studio) from the Directus ecosystem and intellectual property. This new legal entity was a requirement for us to raise VC and serendipitously happened at the same time as our Directus rebranding.
We knew that only products and services of the Directus ecosystem would be under the Monospace umbrella, and so our goal was to create a brand that felt similar yet distinct to that of Directus. In the end, using the same design system (color palette, line weights, border radii, etc) was enough to tie them together.


Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to solve immediate problems, such as capitalizing on current COVID-19 issues. Instead, focus ideation on the future implications of where this trajectory is taking us. 



M7: How do you target content to your audience, and what are the challenges that you face while producing effective content?
BH:
Except for documentation and guides, we actually do very little content creation internally — mostly due to working within an open-source budget. Our technical content is typically very utilitarian, and due to the “agnostic” nature of our software, we’re very wary of creating content that is too opinionated.

Beyond this pragmatic content, we do occasionally post informal articles to our website for larger platform updates, and Twitter posts for discovery and member ingestion. From there we direct users to our Docs for learning and Discord chat for interaction.

M7: Directus has over 36k followers on Twitter. How do you ensure optimum utilization of social media channels for your marketing and promotional activities?
BH:
We’ve focused exclusively on Twitter for broadcasting our real-time Directus updates, with no other reposting or cross-channel marketing. Just like our software, our thinking here is K.I.S.S.
Twitter is the broadest point of our community funnel. By us staying extremely engaged here we’ve noticed more and more users advancing on to GitHub, Discord, and our Cloud service. Our Core Team gets immediate notifications for all new activity and we try very hard to give quick, meaningful responses to all comments and mentions.

While we have never run formal marketing campaigns or advertisements, we do like to offer giveaways and compensated rewards for different types of community engagement. We’re planning to increase these efforts in 2021 with a weekly contest for innovative contributor extensions.


Building your idea properly will take more time than you think, and that more distant future comes with too many uncertainties to completely plan everything out



M7: What do you believe are the top three product marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
BH: Standing-Out From the Noise
- 2020 saw an increase in idle outside sales reps looking for new ways to generate leads. All this online marketing activity adds to the digital noise, and makes it harder for your brand/voice to be heard, so it’s important to find innovative ways to differentiate your messaging.

Cloud Everything- With corporate offices shutting down, the importance of a decentralized data infrastructure for efficient remote work is being realized. With this mad rush to get everything on the cloud, nascent tech and rushed legacy migrations are leading to mountains of piecemeal services filled with technical debt. All teams (especially marketing) need to perform judicious due diligence for these pivotal company upgrades to ensure they shift to properly “future-proofed” (5-10 years) systems.

Team Communication- There’s no denying that the “watercooler” days of impromptu team communication are fading fast, but those unplanned conversations were often the catalyst for amazing cross-department ideas. With remote work now the norm, companies need to adopt technologies that go beyond text-only chats and scheduled Zoom meetings. Innovative new team communication platforms that foster ephemeral telepresence discussions will now be required to fill that void in the workplace.

M7: How are promotional tactics changing for products and services launching during these periods?
BH:
One of the biggest changes over the past year has been the shift towards digital chat communities. A requirement of most remote work positions, services like Discord, Slack, and MS Teams are now extremely commonplace, with an ever-growing number of users and categorized channels. These communities are a great way to find and cultivate brand advocates, quickly grow your user-base, perform market research, and more.

Similarly, with lockdowns, curfews, and general pandemic isolation, there is an increasing number of people looking for social activities online. Promoting hackathons, digital meetups, and other sponsored events after working hours can help gather and coalesce your users and leads within a positive and constructive context.

M7: Your advice to the budding entrepreneurs?
BH:
Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to solve immediate problems, such as capitalizing on current COVID-19 issues. In many ways, COVID-19 simply highlighted and expedited many fundamental issues that were already in our near future. Instead, focus ideation on the future implications of where this trajectory is taking us.

Building your idea properly will take more time than you think, and that more distant future comes with too many uncertainties to completely plan everything out. So start iterating now based on your high-level concept, and then continue to hone-in over time. Our Directus “headless CMS” was actually created a decade before that term was even coined — and well before managing omnichannel content was a common company requirement. We didn’t predict the future, we just stayed flexible enough to keep up with it.

ABOUT DIRECTUS

Directus is an Open Data Platform for managing the content of any SQL database. It provides a powerful API layer for developers and an intuitive App for non-technical users. Written in JavaScript, Directus is completely open- source, modular, and extensible, allowing it to be fully tailored to your exact project needs.

More C-Suite on deck

'Raising the voices of those who may not always be heard is critical,' says Claire Thomas

Media 7 | April 28, 2023

Claire Thomas is responsible for developing and implementing a strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across Hitachi Vantara through programs that reflect the diverse backgrounds, interests, and passions of their current and future workforce. Continue reading to learn her views on the significance of inclusion and diversity in an organization.

Read More

‘Advances in AI and Machine Learning are not scalable without proper data governance program in place’ says Peggy Tsai, Chief Data Officer at BigID

Media 7 | March 8, 2022

Peggy Tsai, Chief Data Officer at BigID talks about BigID’s data intelligence platform and its integrated applications. Read on to know more about her thoughts on GDPR compliance, the future data intelligence landscape and more in her latest interview with Media 7.

Read More

‘Data teams are critical in defining and driving business growth metrics’ says Gaurav Rewari, CEO of Mode.

Media 7 | March 4, 2022

Gaurav Rewari, CEO of Mode elaborates on his role as a CEO of Mode Analytics, the most comprehensive platform for collaborative Business Intelligence and Interactive Data Science. Read on to know more about his thoughts on digitization and Mode's brand-new visualization tool, Visual Explorer.

Read More

'Raising the voices of those who may not always be heard is critical,' says Claire Thomas

Media 7 | April 28, 2023

Claire Thomas is responsible for developing and implementing a strategy for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across Hitachi Vantara through programs that reflect the diverse backgrounds, interests, and passions of their current and future workforce. Continue reading to learn her views on the significance of inclusion and diversity in an organization.

Read More

‘Advances in AI and Machine Learning are not scalable without proper data governance program in place’ says Peggy Tsai, Chief Data Officer at BigID

Media 7 | March 8, 2022

Peggy Tsai, Chief Data Officer at BigID talks about BigID’s data intelligence platform and its integrated applications. Read on to know more about her thoughts on GDPR compliance, the future data intelligence landscape and more in her latest interview with Media 7.

Read More

‘Data teams are critical in defining and driving business growth metrics’ says Gaurav Rewari, CEO of Mode.

Media 7 | March 4, 2022

Gaurav Rewari, CEO of Mode elaborates on his role as a CEO of Mode Analytics, the most comprehensive platform for collaborative Business Intelligence and Interactive Data Science. Read on to know more about his thoughts on digitization and Mode's brand-new visualization tool, Visual Explorer.

Read More

Related News

Big Data Management

SAS accelerates delivery of novel medicines using AI and analytics

WebWire | September 29, 2023

SAS, a leader in AI and analytics, is helping to revolutionize the use of clinical trial data so new medicines can be delivered to patients faster than before. After a thorough evaluation, SAS has been chosen by global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to help increase efficiency and drive automation in the delivery of statistical analyses for clinical and post-approval submissions to regulatory authorities, via SAS’s cloud-based software and technologies. SAS will support the redesign of clinical and patient data flow by delivering industry-leading analytics and AI, manage changing trial designs in a fast-evolving regulatory environment, enable data re-use, and help accelerate reporting and submission timelines. It will also deliver increased capacity, automation, interoperability, and flexibility to bring in and analyze diverse and novel patient data sources – such as those coming from wearables, sensors and precision medicine – as part of the submissions process. This will be achieved by supporting the analysis and reporting phases with SAS® Life Science Analytics Framework and SAS® Viya®, a scalable and powerful cloud-based industry platform enabling swift decision-making regardless of data volumes or complexity using modern cloud technologies. This has the potential to provide significant productivity gains by driving faster time to market and reduced IT costs. The SAS and AstraZeneca partnership will enable teams across the organization to collaborate and increase clinical research innovation. Christopher J Miller, VP Biometrics at AstraZeneca, said, This partnership with SAS supports the transformation of how we use clinical data to support our patient-centric approach and focus on getting medicines to patients faster than ever before. It will also allow us to introduce new ways of working and embrace new technologies and trial models to accelerate our portfolio. Bryan Harris, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said, “I’m delighted that SAS is building on the strong relationship it has had with AstraZeneca over many years by being part of this transformation program. The work they do positively impacts the lives of millions of people around the world. “This is exciting because we have solidified a great foundation between our companies, but we also recognize we are just scratching the surface. We pay attention to technology and the advancements in AI, and we thrive on thinking through how our technology blended with AstraZeneca’s expertise and insight can create new medical solutions for their customers.” About SAS SAS is a global leader in AI and analytics software, including industry-specific solutions. SAS helps organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.

Read More

Business Intelligence

Oracle's New Next-generation Platform Transforms Business Insights

Oracle | September 25, 2023

Oracle introduces a data, analytics, and AI platform for Fusion Cloud Applications to enhance business outcomes. The platform offers 360-degree Data Models, Prescriptive AI/ML Models, Rich Interactive Analytics, and Intelligent Applications. Oracle plans to extend the platform to NetSuite and other industry applications, enriching analytics offerings. Oracle has recently unveiled the Fusion Data Intelligence Platform, a cutting-edge data, analytics, and AI solution designed to empower Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications users to enhance their business outcomes through the fusion of data-driven insights and intelligent decision-making. This groundbreaking platform, which builds upon the foundations of the Oracle Fusion Analytics Warehouse product, offers business data-as-a-service with automated data pipelines, comprehensive 360-degree data models for critical business entities, interactive analytics, AI/ML models, and intelligent applications. These ready-to-use capabilities run on top of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Data Lakehouse services, including Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Analytics Cloud, thereby facilitating complete extensibility across data, analytics, AI/ML, and application layers. The Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform presents the following suite of pre-built capabilities that are designed to empower Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications users to unlock the full potential of their data: 360-Degree Data Models: This will equip business users with a cohesive and comprehensible representation of their organizational data, allowing them to discern the intricate relationships between data and business processes. By providing a range of conformed data models based on Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications data and other data sources, this platform offers a 360-degree view of various facets of a business, including customers, accounts, products, suppliers, and employees. Prescriptive AI/ML Models: Leveraging pre-configured AI/ML models, such as workforce skills assessment and customer payment forecasting, organizations can solve specific business problems by automating labor-intensive tasks, freeing up resources for strategic endeavors. Furthermore, it empowers organizations to rapidly analyze substantial datasets, uncovering invaluable insights and patterns that can drive business growth and efficiency. Rich Interactive Analytics: Business users can seamlessly explore and visualize their data using pre-built dashboards, reports, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Additionally, Analytics Cloud features like natural language query, auto insights, and mobile applications allow quick access to data and insights. Intelligent Applications: These applications go beyond providing insights offering intelligent recommendations based on pre-existing data models, AI/ML models, and analytics content. They enable organizations to make informed decisions swiftly, ultimately improving business outcomes. The Fusion Data Intelligence Platform is a pivotal step in a long-term vision to transition from data and analytics to actionable decisions that drive business success. Importantly, this platform will extend its reach beyond Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, with plans to offer the same foundational platform for NetSuite and across various Oracle industry applications, such as healthcare, financial services, and utilities, to facilitate cross-domain insights. The Fusion Data Intelligence Platform includes an extensive portfolio of ready-to-use analytics for Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX). These analytics offerings have been further enriched with the following additions: Oracle Fusion ERP Analytics: The introduction of Accounting Hub analytics empowers finance teams to create a system of insights for accounting data sourced from Oracle Accounting Hub sub-ledger applications. Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics: New Manufacturing analytics provide manufacturers with timely insights into work order performance, enhancing shop floor efficiency by rapidly identifying anomalies and continually optimizing plan-to-produce processes by connecting insights across supply chain data. Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics: The addition of Inferred Skills, Payroll Costing, and Continuous Listening analytics equips organizational leaders with integrated workforce insights, covering employee skills, payroll trends and anomalies, and the efficacy of a continuous listening strategy at any given point in time. Oracle Fusion CX Analytics: The new Quote-to-Cash analytics extend the analysis beyond the lead-to-opportunity pipeline by offering insights into how the price, contract, and quote process influences the overall customer experience.

Read More

Big Data Management

Microsoft's AI Data Exposure Highlights Challenges in AI Integration

Microsoft | September 22, 2023

AI models rely heavily on vast data volumes for their functionality, thus increasing risks associated with mishandling data in AI projects. Microsoft's AI research team accidentally exposed 38 terabytes of private data on GitHub. Many companies feel compelled to adopt generative AI but lack the expertise to do so effectively. Artificial intelligence (AI) models are renowned for their enormous appetite for data, making them among the most data-intensive computing platforms in existence. While AI holds the potential to revolutionize the world, it is utterly dependent on the availability and ingestion of vast volumes of data. An alarming incident involving Microsoft's AI research team recently highlighted the immense data exposure risks inherent in this technology. The team inadvertently exposed a staggering 38 terabytes of private data when publishing open-source AI training data on the cloud-based code hosting platform GitHub. This exposed data included a complete backup of two Microsoft employees' workstations, containing highly sensitive personal information such as private keys, passwords to internal Microsoft services, and over 30,000 messages from 359 Microsoft employees. The exposure was a result of an accidental configuration, which granted "full control" access instead of "read-only" permissions. This oversight meant that potential attackers could not only view the exposed files but also manipulate, overwrite, or delete them. Although a crisis was narrowly averted in this instance, it serves as a glaring example of the new risks organizations face as they integrate AI more extensively into their operations. With staff engineers increasingly handling vast amounts of specialized and sensitive data to train AI models, it is imperative for companies to establish robust governance policies and educational safeguards to mitigate security risks. Training specialized AI models necessitates specialized data. As organizations of all sizes embrace the advantages AI offers in their day-to-day workflows, IT, data, and security teams must grasp the inherent exposure risks associated with each stage of the AI development process. Open data sharing plays a critical role in AI training, with researchers gathering and disseminating extensive amounts of both external and internal data to build the necessary training datasets for their AI models. However, the more data that is shared, the greater the risk if it is not handled correctly, as evidenced by the Microsoft incident. AI, in many ways, challenges an organization's internal corporate policies like no other technology has done before. To harness AI tools effectively and securely, businesses must first establish a robust data infrastructure to avoid the fundamental pitfalls of AI. Securing the future of AI requires a nuanced approach. Despite concerns about AI's potential risks, organizations should be more concerned about the quality of AI software than the technology turning rogue. PYMNTS Intelligence's research indicates that many companies are uncertain about their readiness for generative AI but still feel compelled to adopt it. A substantial 62% of surveyed executives believe their companies lack the expertise to harness the technology effectively, according to 'Understanding the Future of Generative AI,' a collaboration between PYMNTS and AI-ID. The rapid advancement of computing power and cloud storage infrastructure has reshaped the business landscape, setting the stage for data-driven innovations like AI to revolutionize business processes. While tech giants or well-funded startups primarily produce today's AI models, computing power costs are continually decreasing. In a few years, AI models may become so advanced that everyday consumers can run them on personal devices at home, akin to today's cutting-edge platforms. This juncture signifies a tipping point, where the ever-increasing zettabytes of proprietary data produced each year must be addressed promptly. If not, the risks associated with future innovations will scale up in sync with their capabilities.

Read More

Big Data Management

SAS accelerates delivery of novel medicines using AI and analytics

WebWire | September 29, 2023

SAS, a leader in AI and analytics, is helping to revolutionize the use of clinical trial data so new medicines can be delivered to patients faster than before. After a thorough evaluation, SAS has been chosen by global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to help increase efficiency and drive automation in the delivery of statistical analyses for clinical and post-approval submissions to regulatory authorities, via SAS’s cloud-based software and technologies. SAS will support the redesign of clinical and patient data flow by delivering industry-leading analytics and AI, manage changing trial designs in a fast-evolving regulatory environment, enable data re-use, and help accelerate reporting and submission timelines. It will also deliver increased capacity, automation, interoperability, and flexibility to bring in and analyze diverse and novel patient data sources – such as those coming from wearables, sensors and precision medicine – as part of the submissions process. This will be achieved by supporting the analysis and reporting phases with SAS® Life Science Analytics Framework and SAS® Viya®, a scalable and powerful cloud-based industry platform enabling swift decision-making regardless of data volumes or complexity using modern cloud technologies. This has the potential to provide significant productivity gains by driving faster time to market and reduced IT costs. The SAS and AstraZeneca partnership will enable teams across the organization to collaborate and increase clinical research innovation. Christopher J Miller, VP Biometrics at AstraZeneca, said, This partnership with SAS supports the transformation of how we use clinical data to support our patient-centric approach and focus on getting medicines to patients faster than ever before. It will also allow us to introduce new ways of working and embrace new technologies and trial models to accelerate our portfolio. Bryan Harris, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said, “I’m delighted that SAS is building on the strong relationship it has had with AstraZeneca over many years by being part of this transformation program. The work they do positively impacts the lives of millions of people around the world. “This is exciting because we have solidified a great foundation between our companies, but we also recognize we are just scratching the surface. We pay attention to technology and the advancements in AI, and we thrive on thinking through how our technology blended with AstraZeneca’s expertise and insight can create new medical solutions for their customers.” About SAS SAS is a global leader in AI and analytics software, including industry-specific solutions. SAS helps organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.

Read More

Business Intelligence

Oracle's New Next-generation Platform Transforms Business Insights

Oracle | September 25, 2023

Oracle introduces a data, analytics, and AI platform for Fusion Cloud Applications to enhance business outcomes. The platform offers 360-degree Data Models, Prescriptive AI/ML Models, Rich Interactive Analytics, and Intelligent Applications. Oracle plans to extend the platform to NetSuite and other industry applications, enriching analytics offerings. Oracle has recently unveiled the Fusion Data Intelligence Platform, a cutting-edge data, analytics, and AI solution designed to empower Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications users to enhance their business outcomes through the fusion of data-driven insights and intelligent decision-making. This groundbreaking platform, which builds upon the foundations of the Oracle Fusion Analytics Warehouse product, offers business data-as-a-service with automated data pipelines, comprehensive 360-degree data models for critical business entities, interactive analytics, AI/ML models, and intelligent applications. These ready-to-use capabilities run on top of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Data Lakehouse services, including Oracle Autonomous Database and Oracle Analytics Cloud, thereby facilitating complete extensibility across data, analytics, AI/ML, and application layers. The Oracle Fusion Data Intelligence Platform presents the following suite of pre-built capabilities that are designed to empower Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications users to unlock the full potential of their data: 360-Degree Data Models: This will equip business users with a cohesive and comprehensible representation of their organizational data, allowing them to discern the intricate relationships between data and business processes. By providing a range of conformed data models based on Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications data and other data sources, this platform offers a 360-degree view of various facets of a business, including customers, accounts, products, suppliers, and employees. Prescriptive AI/ML Models: Leveraging pre-configured AI/ML models, such as workforce skills assessment and customer payment forecasting, organizations can solve specific business problems by automating labor-intensive tasks, freeing up resources for strategic endeavors. Furthermore, it empowers organizations to rapidly analyze substantial datasets, uncovering invaluable insights and patterns that can drive business growth and efficiency. Rich Interactive Analytics: Business users can seamlessly explore and visualize their data using pre-built dashboards, reports, and key performance indicators (KPIs). Additionally, Analytics Cloud features like natural language query, auto insights, and mobile applications allow quick access to data and insights. Intelligent Applications: These applications go beyond providing insights offering intelligent recommendations based on pre-existing data models, AI/ML models, and analytics content. They enable organizations to make informed decisions swiftly, ultimately improving business outcomes. The Fusion Data Intelligence Platform is a pivotal step in a long-term vision to transition from data and analytics to actionable decisions that drive business success. Importantly, this platform will extend its reach beyond Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, with plans to offer the same foundational platform for NetSuite and across various Oracle industry applications, such as healthcare, financial services, and utilities, to facilitate cross-domain insights. The Fusion Data Intelligence Platform includes an extensive portfolio of ready-to-use analytics for Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM), Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain & Manufacturing (SCM), and Oracle Fusion Cloud Customer Experience (CX). These analytics offerings have been further enriched with the following additions: Oracle Fusion ERP Analytics: The introduction of Accounting Hub analytics empowers finance teams to create a system of insights for accounting data sourced from Oracle Accounting Hub sub-ledger applications. Oracle Fusion SCM Analytics: New Manufacturing analytics provide manufacturers with timely insights into work order performance, enhancing shop floor efficiency by rapidly identifying anomalies and continually optimizing plan-to-produce processes by connecting insights across supply chain data. Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics: The addition of Inferred Skills, Payroll Costing, and Continuous Listening analytics equips organizational leaders with integrated workforce insights, covering employee skills, payroll trends and anomalies, and the efficacy of a continuous listening strategy at any given point in time. Oracle Fusion CX Analytics: The new Quote-to-Cash analytics extend the analysis beyond the lead-to-opportunity pipeline by offering insights into how the price, contract, and quote process influences the overall customer experience.

Read More

Big Data Management

Microsoft's AI Data Exposure Highlights Challenges in AI Integration

Microsoft | September 22, 2023

AI models rely heavily on vast data volumes for their functionality, thus increasing risks associated with mishandling data in AI projects. Microsoft's AI research team accidentally exposed 38 terabytes of private data on GitHub. Many companies feel compelled to adopt generative AI but lack the expertise to do so effectively. Artificial intelligence (AI) models are renowned for their enormous appetite for data, making them among the most data-intensive computing platforms in existence. While AI holds the potential to revolutionize the world, it is utterly dependent on the availability and ingestion of vast volumes of data. An alarming incident involving Microsoft's AI research team recently highlighted the immense data exposure risks inherent in this technology. The team inadvertently exposed a staggering 38 terabytes of private data when publishing open-source AI training data on the cloud-based code hosting platform GitHub. This exposed data included a complete backup of two Microsoft employees' workstations, containing highly sensitive personal information such as private keys, passwords to internal Microsoft services, and over 30,000 messages from 359 Microsoft employees. The exposure was a result of an accidental configuration, which granted "full control" access instead of "read-only" permissions. This oversight meant that potential attackers could not only view the exposed files but also manipulate, overwrite, or delete them. Although a crisis was narrowly averted in this instance, it serves as a glaring example of the new risks organizations face as they integrate AI more extensively into their operations. With staff engineers increasingly handling vast amounts of specialized and sensitive data to train AI models, it is imperative for companies to establish robust governance policies and educational safeguards to mitigate security risks. Training specialized AI models necessitates specialized data. As organizations of all sizes embrace the advantages AI offers in their day-to-day workflows, IT, data, and security teams must grasp the inherent exposure risks associated with each stage of the AI development process. Open data sharing plays a critical role in AI training, with researchers gathering and disseminating extensive amounts of both external and internal data to build the necessary training datasets for their AI models. However, the more data that is shared, the greater the risk if it is not handled correctly, as evidenced by the Microsoft incident. AI, in many ways, challenges an organization's internal corporate policies like no other technology has done before. To harness AI tools effectively and securely, businesses must first establish a robust data infrastructure to avoid the fundamental pitfalls of AI. Securing the future of AI requires a nuanced approach. Despite concerns about AI's potential risks, organizations should be more concerned about the quality of AI software than the technology turning rogue. PYMNTS Intelligence's research indicates that many companies are uncertain about their readiness for generative AI but still feel compelled to adopt it. A substantial 62% of surveyed executives believe their companies lack the expertise to harness the technology effectively, according to 'Understanding the Future of Generative AI,' a collaboration between PYMNTS and AI-ID. The rapid advancement of computing power and cloud storage infrastructure has reshaped the business landscape, setting the stage for data-driven innovations like AI to revolutionize business processes. While tech giants or well-funded startups primarily produce today's AI models, computing power costs are continually decreasing. In a few years, AI models may become so advanced that everyday consumers can run them on personal devices at home, akin to today's cutting-edge platforms. This juncture signifies a tipping point, where the ever-increasing zettabytes of proprietary data produced each year must be addressed promptly. If not, the risks associated with future innovations will scale up in sync with their capabilities.

Read More

Spotlight

Directus

Directus

Directus is an Open Data Platform for managing the content of any SQL database. It provides a powerful API layer for developers and an intuitive App for non-technical users. Written in JavaScript, Directus is completely open- source, modular, and extensible, allowing it to be fully tailored to your ...

Events

Resources

resource image

Business Intelligence, Big Data Management, Data Science

Data Beyond Borders 3.0

Whitepaper

resource image

Business Intelligence, Big Data Management, Big Data

Understanding User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA)

Video

resource image

Business Intelligence, Big Data Management, Data Science

Data Beyond Borders 3.0

Whitepaper

resource image

Business Intelligence, Big Data Management, Big Data

Understanding User Entity and Behavior Analytics (UEBA)

Video

Events