UC, Nexigen agree to collaborate on AI security

Partnership will increase research opportunities between the business and university

An agreement between the University of Cincinnati and information technology and cybersecurity firm Nexigen will lead to collaboration on artificial intelligence, which includes a goal of making the technology more secure.

Nexigen, one of the Cincinnati region's largest IT service and cybersecurity firms, builds technology solutions for companies in the United States. While not a legally binding contract, the agreement between the Kentucky-based company and UC will lead to cooperation on securing grants, give UC students real-world experience and provide Nexigen with expertise from UC faculty and students.

“Big companies in the region or across the country can leverage the University of Cincinnati’s resources and Dr. Kelly Cohen’s research team,” Nexigen co-founder and CEO Jon Salisbury said. “We think we can bring groups into UC to get research done on their new generative AI projects.”

Kelly Cohen, PhD, director of AI Bio Lab at UC Digital Futures and the Brian H. Rowe Endowed Chair in aerospace engineering at UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, is leading UC's efforts with Nexigen. The partnership will include multiple colleges at UC and Digital Futures, the university's interdisciplinary research facility.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Nexigen,” Cohen said. “I feel there’s a lot of value to our students and new opportunities for research that the University of Cincinnati will have. We’re trying to establish ourselves at UC as a powerhouse when it comes to AI and trustworthy AI. You build this not by doing something alone in an ivory tower but by bringing value to your partners.”

Kelly Cohen, PhD, Brian H. Rowe Endowed Chair in aerospace engineering at UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science

Cohen has worked alongside Nexigen for almost 10 years. They previously collaborated on solving problems in smart cities, technologically modern urban areas that use electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data.

Cohen and Nexigen Chief AI Strategist Zack Huhn presented to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., which helped lead to funding allocations and legislation. Together, they'd like to see a similar outcome for AI security.

“AI capabilities have come a long way but so have the risks,” Huhn said. “[Large language models] and AI systems are built through learned and shared data. When businesses, governments and institutions start using AI and start exposing their data to leverage AI, they’re also creating risks. They have to take mitigating measures to get ahead of that risk.”

Nexigen’s Salisbury likened the current state of AI to the early days of the internet. Before there was an organization to verify that websites were encrypted, anyone could claim their sites were secure without any evidence. Currently, there's no widely accepted standards to verify the security of AI tools.

“Making more secure systems so we can create and implement those golden roads to implementation and success is something this partnership will allow,” Huhn said. “That’s something a lot of enterprises, a lot of governments, even a lot of universities are trying to figure out — how we can use this with confidence and have trust instilled into these systems.”

Jon Salisbury, Nexigen co-founder and CEO

With assistance from UC, Nexigen is working to secure AI systems through both inputs and outputs.

Governments, businesses and other groups want to protect their private data. Nexigen is creating secure repositories that are outside of large language models, AI systems that are capable of generating content by processing large amounts of data.

Through the secure repositories, sensitive data can be blocked from going into the large language models and being exposed outside of the organization. UC’s Cohen's expertise will help in creating more filters, increasing accuracy and safety.

The partnership also will help ensure that outputs from AI systems are appropriate. The work aims to reduce “hallucinations,” when AI systems create nonexistent or inaccurate outputs.

It also aims to prevent people from getting around guardrails. For example, many AI systems prevent users from getting instructions on how to do something illegal, such as build an atomic bomb. But users sometimes can bypass those guardrails by asking for historical information, such as how the Manhattan Project built the first atomic bomb.

While the greatest threats from AI currently are the people building and using the systems, Salisbury said, as the programs become more advanced, the programs could present threats, too. The partnership between Nexigen and UC also will prepare to counteract those as well.

“We take a cybersecurity approach, and it’s zero trust,” Salisbury said. “So we are looking for potential intent problems with the output on LLMs so that if they were to develop a sense of self intelligence, we can actually detect that and kick them off the network.”

Zack Huhn, Nexigen chief AI strategist

More attention has to be paid to AI security, Salisbury said. Too often, many people are focused on functionality and profit with disregard to security, he said.

Nexigen and UC hope to create standards that will ensure safety is accounted for in AI development.

“We need a logical approach and a practical approach to securing these things in a way that doesn’t inhibit innovation,” Salisbury said. “And I think at that intersection between cybersecurity and AI, UC and Nexigen are going to make some magic happen.”

UC and Nexigen, based in the Cincinnati area in Newport, Kentucky, are in the process of applying for multiple grants to develop their work together and provide funding for students, who will work with Nexigen through co-op opportunities.

“For an orchestra to come together, you need the drums, the wood instruments, the string instruments,” Cohen said. “We make good music together. We each bring in an important ingredient, and I think this partnership is going to be very beneficial to our students and the University of Cincinnati.”

Cohen and Salisbury will discuss the partnership during the AI leadership summit, INERTIA, billed as the “AI Summit for Non-technical Leaders.” on May 16 at Union Hall in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine.

Featured image at top: Image of AI computer graphics. Photo/Khanchit Khirisutchalual via iStock

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UC, Nexigen agree to collaborate on AI security

Partnership will increase research opportunities between the business and university

Innovation Lives Here

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