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News — Researchers at Wuhan University have introduced an innovative technique called Fair Adversarial Training (FairAT), which improves the fairness and security of machine learning models against cyber-attacks.

Everyday AI, Exceptional Protection: Securing Our Digital Future

As artificial intelligence becomes a more significant part of everyday life—impacting areas like healthcare, finance, and self-driving cars—it is more important than ever to have AI systems that work reliably for everyone and protect against malicious attacks.

Hunting Weaknesses: How FairAT Targets AI’s Hard Examples

Today’s AI models are generally secure when taken as a whole, yet they sometimes perform poorly on specific data types. This uneven performance can lead to ethical issues and create opportunities for targeted attacks. The new FairAT method directly addresses this problem by identifying the specific parts of an AI model that are the most vulnerable. It does this by finding “hard examples”—data points that tend to confuse the system—and then applying focused training to strengthen those areas.

“We believe that addressing these hard examples is the key to building not only secure but also equitable AI systems,” said Prof. Qian Wang, lead researcher at Wuhan University. “FairAT offers a novel approach that targets AI’s weaknesses, protecting users while promoting fairness across all applications.”

Strengthening AI from Its Weakest Links

One of the key outcomes of this research is that FairAT improves the performance of the weakest parts of an AI model by up to 4.5%. In addition, the system’s overall security increases by about 2%, making FairAT more effective than other advanced techniques like Feature Robust Learning (FRL) and Fairness-aware Adversarial Training (FAT). The method protects the model and enhances its defenses against sophisticated, targeted cyber-attacks.

Smart Data Tweaks for Robust AI

To implement FairAT, the researchers first pinpointed the data points that caused the most trouble for the AI. They then applied specialized data augmentation techniques, which involved making smart and simple adjustments to the training data. This approach is practical and cost-effective because it targets only the problem areas without compromising the model’s overall performance.

Blueprint for Trustworthy AI: Paving the Way for Safe, Fair Systems

FairAT has the potential to transform the way secure and unbiased AI systems are built, making it easier for policymakers, industry leaders, and scientists to develop safe and fair technology. By reducing inherent risks and biases, FairAT could lead to more trustworthy AI applications in various fields.

The introduction of FairAT represents a significant advancement towards creating reliable, secure, and ethically responsible AI systems. This research paves the way for broader adoption of AI technologies that protect users and treat everyone fairly, ensuring that as AI grows in importance, it does so in a way that benefits all.  The complete study is accessible via DOI: 10.1007/s11704-024-3587-1.