US power companies are increasingly mulling whether to allow artificial intelligence-aided systems to play a role securing their physical sites, according to a security executive. Energy firms have been willing to use AI to help secure their software, but had until recently been unwilling to even countenance using the technology in the operations of their production or delivery sites. That has begun to change in the past two years, Marcus Fowler, the head of security firm Darktrace’s US strategic engagements and threats team said in an interview.
Companies are still not going so far as to actually use AI in physical security in the energy sector, Fowler cautioned, but “there’s an interesting conversation” underway. Because of the risks that a technological malfunction could affect the operations of an energy production site, for example, “historically, that would have been a, ‘We’re not even going to talk about that’,” Fowler said. “Today, it is, ‘We want to talk about that,’ but the progression and maturity… is a much longer tail.”