The Last Firewall: AI, Human Value, and the Future We Aren’t Ready For

Cybersecurity professionals have always been among the first to see the unintended consequences of new technology. Long before the public understood the risks of social media, surveillance, disinformation, or large-scale digital fraud, security researchers were already watching the warning signs emerge. AI may be the next — and perhaps biggest — example of this pattern.

While much of the world still views AI primarily as a productivity tool, cybersecurity practitioners are already seeing the deeper implications: the erosion of trust through deepfakes and synthetic media, the automation of cognitive labour, the concentration of power, and the growing fragility of systems built around assumptions that may no longer hold. But the greatest challenges may not be technical at all.

As AI systems increasingly reshape work, expertise, creativity, and human interaction, we are approaching a societal transition that raises uncomfortable questions about identity, meaning, inequality, and resilience. What happens when intelligence is no longer scarce? How do societies adapt when human cognitive labour is no longer economically essential? And what role should security professionals play in helping society navigate these changes responsibly — not just by identifying risks, but by contributing to serious conversations around resilience, economic adaptation, universal basic income, and the kinds of social structures that may be needed in an AI-driven world?

In this keynote, Harriet Farlow — founder of Australia’s first AI security company and author of Practical AI Security (No Starch Press) — explores the societal implications of AI through the lens of security and risk. From workforce displacement and trust erosion to questions around universal basic income and the future of human value, this talk argues that cybersecurity professionals may be uniquely equipped to recognise and respond to the broader consequences of AI before the rest of society catches up.