Shannon Clerkin (UCL) - 2023-24 Students
shannon-marie.clerkin.23@ucl.ac.uk

The influence of narrative in the cybersecurity AI imaginary

Artificial intelligence is now persistent throughout the cybersecurity landscape; far from science fiction, AI-driven security tools monitor everything from our email inboxes to our bank accounts. How we understand cybersecurity and AI appears, in part, to be driven by narratives – it is narrative that turns a phishing email into a ‘ruthless attack on the NHS’, or a compromised server into ‘an act of rebellion against a corrupt government’ – and now these stories run alongside contested understandings of the value, risks and utility of artificial intelligence. These narratives seemingly exist at all levels in the industry, from company-wide stories created by marketing teams to narrative frameworks that influence how human analysts conduct threat-hunting and report-writing. There even appear to be narrative elements within AI algorithms themselves. This project will therefore examine cybersecurity AI through a narrative lens – specifically, exploring the narrative nature of the cybersecurity-AI ‘imaginary’ and its influence on the distribution of knowledge, power, privacy, and ownership. I suggest these insights can contribute to the development of responsible innovation frameworks within AI-enabled cybersecurity.

Primary Supervisor: Stephen Hughes 

Secondary Supervisor: Jack Stilgoe