思科公司安全業務主管大衛?尤勒維什不喜歡對人工智能的炒作，這個領域涉及一門蒸蒸日上的計算機科學，那就是機器學習。

突然之間，所有科技界人士都在大談這個話題。營銷人員，特別是來自網絡安全行業的那些，已經開始把它比作靈丹妙藥；按他們的話說，沒有什么網絡是AI保護不了的（另外，也有人警告說超級智能可能毀了這個世界，就像終結者那樣）。

不久前，尤勒維什在RSA安全會議上發表主題演講前對《財富》雜志表示：“安全領域的真正威脅并非是否存在過于聰明的東西。我更擔心‘人工智障’。”尤勒維什計劃在他的演講中談到這個話題。

無論什么時候，別人拋出算法、分析論、AI這些時髦詞語的時候尤勒維什都會選擇無視。他說：“那就跟說自己有Wi-Fi一樣。這并不表示你的安全措施很好。”

用尤勒維什的話來說，網絡安全產品最有吸引力的特點是“盒子外的整合”。太多的網絡安全公司都只提供API，即應用程序接口，卻把將API和現有防御機制銜接在一起的重擔留給了消費者。

在尤勒維什看來，這樣做還不夠好。新工具應立即兼容它們要保護的網絡。他說：“API只代表可能性。只有很少一部分公司會用到它們。”

尤勒維什認為解決之道在于整合。這樣做可以減輕IT經理和安全專業人員的負擔，而且這些人也沒有協調一切的資源和時間。

尤勒維什介紹說，對整合型產品的偏好一直是思科安全策略背后的一個影響因素，這也解釋了思科擁有眾多合作伙伴以及頻繁收購的原因（實際上，兩年前思科斥資6.35億美元收購了他的初創公司OpenDNS后，尤勒維什才進入了思科）。

尤勒維什用一件日常事物來解釋他對數字威脅的看法。他說，大家可能會用漂亮的尖頭柵欄來保護自己的院子，但除非你加固它，否則欄桿之間還是會有很大的洞。

他指出：“大家需要的東西要非常牢固，難以對付、形成整體而且緊密相連。”

這才是聰明的做法，而且沒有那么多的人工智能色彩。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

David Ulevitch, head of Cisco's security business, has a problem with the hype around artificial intelligence, the field that encompasses the booming computer science discipline of machine learning.

Suddenly, everyone in the tech world is buzzing about the subject. Marketers, especially ones in the cybersecurity industry, have started plugging it as something of a panacea; there's no network AI can't protect, if the salespeople are to be believed. (Alternatively, others warn that a super-intelligence could destroy the world, Terminator-style.)

"The real threat in security is not whether we have things that are too smart," Ulevitch told Fortune in advance of his Wednesday RSA security conference keynote, during which he planned to touch on the topic. "I'm more concerned about 'Artificial Stupidity.'"

Whenever someone starts dropping the latest buzzwords—algorithms, analytics, AI—Ulevitch tunes them out, he said. "That's like saying you have Wi-Fi," he said. "That doesn't tell me that your security is good."

For Ulevitch, one of the most compelling features for a cybersecurity product is what he calls "integration out of the box." Too many cybersecurity companies simply offer APIs, or application programming interfaces, which puts the burden on customers to connect them to their existing defenses.

That's not good enough, in Ulevitch's view. New tools should be instantly compatible with the networks they're designed to protect. "APIs just represent potential," he said. "Only a small fraction of companies deal with them."

Integrations are the solution, according to Ulevitch. They take the load off the IT managers and security pros, who don't have the resources and time to sync everything up themselves.

This preference for integrated products has been a driving factor behind Cisco's (csco) security strategy, helping to explain its vast array of partnerships and frequent acquisitions, per Ulevitch. (In fact, he landed at Cisco after the company purchased his startup OpenDNS for $635 million two years ago.)

Ulevitch used a domestic analogy to explain his view of the digital threat landscape. You might have a nice picket fence protecting your yard, he said, but unless you reinforce the barrier, sizable holes still exist between the pickets.

"You need something much more firm, formidable, holistic, and tied together," he said.

That's the smart approach—and no artificially so.