Technology hypes do not only affect consumer industries but also tend to impact the trajectories of research conducted in the security and privacy domain.
In fact, researchers arguably bear a responsibility to anticipate and stay on top of technology hypes.
While leaning into technology hypes and search for emerging low-hanging fruits is tempting, a more reserved perspective on rapid developments may yield more sustainable benefits beyond short-term publication capabilities.
This talk motivates for the viability of various concurrent levels of embracing or scrutinizing AI trends based on previous research activities and discusses corresponding perspectives on the example of agentic AI.
Speaker Biography
Roman Matzutt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT in Germany.
He has received his PhD from RWTH Aachen University, where he worked on the risks and opportunities of general-purpose data management on permissionless blockchains.
His research interests include blockchain technology, the application of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) in decentralized systems, and privacy challenges of AI-centric systems as well as AI applications for cybersecurity.
His work on the risks of illicit content being immutably stored on Bitcoin's blockchain has previously been featured in various media outlets including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and BBC News.
He serves as the project manager for Fraunhofer FIT's contributions to the upcoming JUPITER AI Factory (JAIF), one of currently two AI Factories in Germany.