Enable AI. Reduce cybercrime. Unleash abundance
Perhaps the biggest near-term AI opportunity is reducing cybercrime costs. With serious attacks unfolding almost daily, digital insecurity’s economic weight has truly grown out of control. Per the European Commission, global cybercrime costs in 2020 were estimated at 5.5 trillion euros (around $6.43 trillion). Since then, costs have only spiraled. In 2025, Cybersecurity Ventures estimates annual costs will hit $10 trillion, a showstopping 9 percent of global GDP. As Bloomberg notes, global cybercrime is now the world’s third-largest economy. This is truly an unrivaled crisis.
Thankfully, it is also an unrivaled opportunity. Given the problem’s sheer scale, any technology, process, or policy that shaves off just a sliver of these cyber costs has percentage point growth potential. Reduce cyber threats, and abundance will follow.
The immense potential of software translation is far from the only near-term AI opportunity. Already, studies have proven AI can automate vulnerability detection—that is, AI can discover serious security issues without human involvement. Soon, software could be proactively secured even before it ships. Likewise, advances in AI task completion suggest software patches could soon be automated. In a few years, software fixes could be generated and shipped just moments after insecurities are discovered. Beyond, we find countless other possibilities in advanced cyber intelligence, threat detection, real-time response, and more.
