Some believe the children are our future; others say computers and AI will render humanity obsolete.

The state of North Dakota appears to be trying to have it both ways with a new law that will require a cybersecurity course as a graduation condition for high schoolers, and provide computer training for kids starting in kindergarten.

The requirements of the bill, signed by Gov. Doug Burgum in March, will go into effect in 2025. North Dakota is reportedly the first state in the US to mandate cybersecurity education for K–12 students.

Under the new standards, students in kindergarten through second grade will learn basic computing skills and online safety; students in grades three through five will expand those lessons into basic coding and computer ethics; grades six through eight will learn data skills; and high schoolers will have the option of elevating those skills to more advanced lessons.

The law, which comes in the midst of a nationwide personnel shortage in cybersecurity, will also provide grant money for adult education centers that offer computer education programs.

During remarks delivered at the signing ceremony, North Dakota Superintendent of Schools Kirsten Baesler praised the “years of work” from stakeholders in the schools and state government that led to the new rules.

“Our vision is to integrate and underscore the importance of computer science and cybersecurity instruction into the classes our students take as they move through our K–12 system,” Baesler said. “Under this bill, the information and knowledge our students need will be part of every grade level, which is appropriate when you consider the role that technology plays in our everyday lives.”

Read more here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Is it just us, or does the list of security and privacy frameworks just keep growing? SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, PCI…you get the picture.

If it feels like you’re racing the clock to have compliance locked in for requesting prospects, turn to the trusted compliance provider that can get you compliant in weeks: Secureframe. Yep, weeks, not months.

As a highly comprehensive security and compliance automation platform with over 100 integrations, built-in security training, and vendor and risk management, Secureframe continuously detects and remediates misconfigurations across your tech stack, all while giving you complete viz.

With unmatched expert guidance from former auditors and industry pros every step of the way, Secureframe’s got ya covered—and compliant.

See how it works with a demo.

A recent joint statement warning AI could usher in the apocalypse reads like a who’s who of corporate leaders developing the very technology they’re cautioning against.

On May 30, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety released a one-sentence statement warning that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” It was signed by 350+ scientists, researchers, and executives—among them OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, not to mention a slew of C-suite leaders from other firms with AI ambitions, like Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott.

As the New York Times noted, prominent Turing Award-winning AI scientists Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio were also signatories, though fellow award winner and Meta AI research lead Yann LeCun did not.

Avivah Litan, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner, told Computerworld the statement was “without precedent.”

“When have you ever heard of tech entrepreneurs telling the public that the technology they are working on can wipe out the human race if left unchecked?” Litan told the site. “Yet they continue to work on it because of competitive pressures.”

Many of the signatories have previously expressed concerns about artificial general intelligence (AGI), referring to hypothetical machines which demonstrate human-level capacity at most tasks. While arguments between AI researchers and entrepreneurs about how close the current state of the technology is to AGI have been contentious, many experts tend to view it as a distant prospect.

Read more here.—TM

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected]. Want to go encrypted? Ask Tom for his Signal.

AI can seem big and scary:

It answers difficult questions. It handles data at a rate that humans cannot. It hallucinates!

“People fear AI; it’s one thing to use AI on the internet today to get your next travel itinerary. It’s another thing to use it at work,” said Mohamed Kande, vice chair, US consulting solutions co-leader, and global advisory leader at the professional services firm PwC, during a May news conference in Manhattan.

To address the fears of vast, almost-almost-knowing, AI-powered models, PwC has an idea: smaller, more contained AI-powered models. The consultancy in April deployed a pilot ChatGPT for internal use and a small set of employees.

The AI test run allows for a more controlled deployment of the technology, and is a bet on a more “precise” and limited model than the vast public one that people have gotten to know.

“As you train the models in those proprietary environments, you can actually tighten up its understanding of the data, because now instead of dealing with the large model sets, you’re actually dealing with a more precise data set,” said Joe Atkinson, vice chair and chief products and technology officer at PwC, during the roundtable.

$1b, but start small! In April, PwC announced a $1 billion investment in AI, including a partnership with Microsoft. With Azure’s OpenAI capabilities, PwC launched its own ChatGPT, trained on PwC-approved data. The pilot test aims to answer employee’s questions related to company policies, process, and proprietary data, while also demonstrating the value of small, contained AI.

Keep reading here.—BH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: 43%. That’s how many companies currently engage cross-border freelance tech workers, a number that is expected to increase as the labor crunch continues. (ITPro Today)

Quote: “While somewhat specific, they lack technical detail.”—Center for Strategic Research security expert Oleg Shakirov on Russian claims the US has been hacking Apple devices to spy on diplomats (the Record)

Read: Twitter’s demise has been greatly exaggerated, and it’s hard to see another platform taking its place, says social media expert Ethan Zuckerman. (Wired)

Securing SOC 2: Information security hygiene is instrumental in winning big deals. But gaining that competitive advantage via SOC 2 compliance can be a complex process. This guide walks you through it.*

Keep it safe: As the digital health industry expands, businesses are scrambling to balance growth with protecting sensitive patient info. Join Thoropass’ virtual event to hear experts discuss privacy, fraud mitigation, and automating your compliance process.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}