The US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has warned that advanced artificial intelligence could be exploited by terrorists or adversaries to develop weapons and plan more devastating attacks, potentially leading to a hard-to-predict 'Black Swan' event. A new report assessing US efforts over the 25 years since 9/11 states that advanced large language models could make it easier for malicious actors to access information and knowledge conducive to planning attacks, while current safeguards may not keep pace with technological advances. The committee, led by Republican Rick Crawford and Democrat Jim Himes, urges intelligence agencies to accelerate the responsible adoption of AI and invest in secure AI tools for data collection, analysis, and alert systems, with rigorous testing and human oversight. The report also acknowledges that the US still has significant vulnerabilities and is not fully prepared for new AI-driven threats.
Google confirms Gemini unintentionally accessed systems at three real companies during security testing
Google confirmed on Friday, September 18, that its Gemini artificial intelligence model unintentionally accessed protected systems at three companies during cybersecurity testing in May, because the model mistook those systems for targets it was authorized to test. Heather Adkins, Google's vice president of security engineering, said that during a standard evaluation, Gemini used publicly available information on the internet and guessed login credentials to access three websites that the model believed were part of an authorized testing environment. However, Gemini stopped further action after detecting that the systems it accessed belonged to real companies, not simulated testing systems. Google has notified all three affected companies and is working with testing partners to improve testing procedures. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the testing was conducted by Irregular, an AI security evaluation firm. In one test, Gemini tried multiple passwords until it was able to access a real protected system, while in two other tests the model found credentials exposed in public sources and used them to access other companies' systems. Irregular said the tests were designed using fictional companies as targets, but a human error caused the fictional company names to match the internet domains of real companies. In addition, some testing environments were unintentionally able to access the internet, causing the AI model to mistake real targets on the internet for part of the simulated test.
Anthropic Partners with Accenture on AI Safety Evaluations, $1 Billion Each Over Five Years
Artificial intelligence developer Anthropic announced on the 18th that it is partnering with consulting giant Accenture to conduct independent evaluations of its most advanced AI models. Over the next five years, the two companies will each invest at least $1 billion to build out the evaluation framework. Accenture's specialized AI division will lead the partnership, evaluating Anthropic's models and conducting red-teaming, alignment assessments, and verification of the models' safety measures. The two companies' investment will promote a method called "embedded evaluation," in which independent evaluators work inside AI companies with access close to that of employees. Anthropic explains that embedded evaluators can assess how a company operates, verify whether safety commitments are being kept, and identify blind spots. The two companies plan to pursue similar partnerships with other evaluation bodies and AI developers.
Palo Alto Networks Fair Value Estimate Raised 17% to US$395.38
The fair value estimate for Palo Alto Networks has been raised from US$336.70 to US$395.38, a roughly 17% increase in the underlying model, after a wave of analyst price target hikes. RBC Capital, Wells Fargo, BofA, Morgan Stanley and Truist lifted their targets into the low to mid US$400s, citing stronger cybersecurity demand as AI usage expands and customers consolidate spending with larger platforms. Goldman Sachs, Oppenheimer, BTIG and Susquehanna pointed to solid Q4 results and guidance, with broad based strength across firewalls, SASE, observability, identity and AI security modules. On the bearish side, Bernstein and Phillip Securities moved to more neutral stances while still raising targets, and Stephens and UBS described the risk or reward as more balanced with shares near peak valuation levels. The updated model trims the revenue growth assumption to about 17.31% from about 19.09% and the net profit margin outlook to about 13.84% from about 14.51%, while the future P/E rises to about 197.87x from about 164.67x and the discount rate adjusts to about 8.60% from 8.40%.
