Palo Alto Networks Makes Bold AI Security Move with Protect AI Acquisition
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) has taken a major step to fortify its leadership in AI cybersecurity by announcing a definitive agreement to acquire Protect AI. Management emphasized that the explosion of AI applications across enterprises and governments has created an entirely new and vulnerable attack surface. With Protect AI's advanced solutions and expert team, Palo Alto Networks plans to deliver comprehensive security that covers the entire AI development lifecyclefrom model scanning to runtime protection. The acquisition is expected to significantly expand Palo Alto Networks' ability to manage emerging AI-specific threats like model manipulation, data poisoning, and prompt injection attacks.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with PANW.
The acquisition will also accelerate the launch of Prisma AIRS, which management describes as the most complete AI security platform available today. Prisma AIRS is designed to provide customers with end-to-end protection as they embed AI into critical operations, offering capabilities including GenAI runtime security, risk assessments, posture management, and AI agent security. By integrating Protect AI's technology, Palo Alto Networks aims to address an urgent and growing gap where traditional cybersecurity tools are no longer sufficient. The company believes that organizations now need purpose-built solutions to deploy AI safely and at scale.
Leadership from both companies signaled strong optimism about the future. Anand Oswal, SVP at Palo Alto Networks, highlighted that Protect AI's portfolio will immediately bolster Palo Alto Networks' ability to meet current customer demands while fueling future innovation in AI security. Protect AI's CEO Ian Swanson echoed the enthusiasm, noting the partnership would allow their mission to scale globally with Palo Alto Networks' operational strength. Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close by the first fiscal quarter of 2026, positioning the company at the center of one of the most important technology transformations of this decade.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
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Axios
9 minutes ago
- Axios
Behind the Curtain: The scariest AI reality
The wildest, scariest, indisputable truth about AI's large language models is that the companies building them don't know exactly why or how they work. Sit with that for a moment. The most powerful companies, racing to build the most powerful superhuman intelligence capabilities — ones they readily admit occasionally go rogue to make things up, or even threaten their users — don't know why their machines do what they do. Why it matters: With the companies pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into willing superhuman intelligence into a quick existence, and Washington doing nothing to slow or police them, it seems worth dissecting this Great Unknown. None of the AI companies dispute this. They marvel at the mystery — and muse about it publicly. They're working feverishly to better understand it. They argue you don't need to fully understand a technology to tame or trust it. Two years ago, Axios managing editor for tech Scott Rosenberg wrote a story, "AI's scariest mystery," saying it's common knowledge among AI developers that they can't always explain or predict their systems' behavior. And that's more true than ever. Yet there's no sign that the government or companies or general public will demand any deeper understanding — or scrutiny — of building a technology with capabilities beyond human understanding. They're convinced the race to beat China to the most advanced LLMs warrants the risk of the Great Unknown. The House, despite knowing so little about AI, tucked language into President Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" that would prohibit states and localities from any AI regulations for 10 years. The Senate is considering limitations on the provision. Neither the AI companies nor Congress understands the power of AI a year from now, much less a decade from now. The big picture: Our purpose with this column isn't to be alarmist or " doomers." It's to clinically explain why the inner workings of superhuman intelligence models are a black box, even to the technology's creators. We'll also show, in their own words, how CEOs and founders of the largest AI companies all agree it's a black box. Let's start with a basic overview of how LLMs work, to better explain the Great Unknown: LLMs — including Open AI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini — aren't traditional software systems following clear, human-written instructions, like Microsoft Word. In the case of Word, it does precisely what it's engineered to do. Instead, LLMs are massive neural networks — like a brain — that ingest massive amounts of information (much of the internet) to learn to generate answers. The engineers know what they're setting in motion, and what data sources they draw on. But the LLM's size — the sheer inhuman number of variables in each choice of "best next word" it makes — means even the experts can't explain exactly why it chooses to say anything in particular. We asked ChatGPT to explain this (and a human at OpenAI confirmed its accuracy): "We can observe what an LLM outputs, but the process by which it decides on a response is largely opaque. As OpenAI's researchers bluntly put it, 'we have not yet developed human-understandable explanations for why the model generates particular outputs.'" "In fact," ChatGPT continued, "OpenAI admitted that when they tweaked their model architecture in GPT-4, 'more research is needed' to understand why certain versions started hallucinating more than earlier versions — a surprising, unintended behavior even its creators couldn't fully diagnose." Anthropic — which just released Claude 4, the latest model of its LLM, with great fanfare — admitted it was unsure why Claude, when given access to fictional emails during safety testing, threatened to blackmail an engineer over a supposed extramarital affair. This was part of responsible safety testing — but Anthropic can't fully explain the irresponsible action. Again, sit with that: The company doesn't know why its machine went rogue and malicious. And, in truth, the creators don't really know how smart or independent the LLMs could grow. Anthropic even said Claude 4 is powerful enough to pose a greater risk of being used to develop nuclear or chemical weapons. OpenAI's Sam Altman and others toss around the tame word of " interpretability" to describe the challenge. "We certainly have not solved interpretability," Altman told a summit in Geneva last year. What Altman and others mean is they can't interpret the why: Why are LLMs doing what they're doing? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, in an essay in April called "The Urgency of Interpretability," warned: "People outside the field are often surprised and alarmed to learn that we do not understand how our own AI creations work. They are right to be concerned: this lack of understanding is essentially unprecedented in the history of technology." Amodei called this a serious risk to humanity — yet his company keeps boasting of more powerful models nearing superhuman capabilities. Anthropic has been studying the interpretability issue for years, and Amodei has been vocal about warning it's important to solve. In a statement for this story, Anthropic said: "Understanding how AI works is an urgent issue to solve. It's core to deploying safe AI models and unlocking [AI's] full potential in accelerating scientific discovery and technological development. We have a dedicated research team focused on solving this issue, and they've made significant strides in moving the industry's understanding of the inner workings of AI forward. It's crucial we understand how AI works before it radically transforms our global economy and everyday lives." (Read a paper Anthropic published last year, "Mapping the Mind of a Large Language Model.") Elon Musk has warned for years that AI presents a civilizational risk. In other words, he literally thinks it could destroy humanity, and has said as much. Yet Musk is pouring billions into his own LLM called Grok. "I think AI is a significant existential threat," Musk said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, last fall. There's a 10%-20% chance "that it goes bad." Reality check: Apple published a paper last week, "The Illusion of Thinking," concluding that even the most advanced AI reasoning models don't really "think," and can fail when stress-tested. The study found that state-of-the-art models (OpenAI's o3-min, DeepSeek R1 and Anthropic's Claude-3.7-Sonnet) still fail to develop generalizable problem-solving capabilities, with accuracy ultimately collapsing to zero "beyond certain complexities." But a new report by AI researchers, including former OpenAI employees, called " AI 2027," explains how the Great Unknown could, in theory, turn catastrophic in less than two years. The report is long and often too technical for casual readers to fully grasp. It's wholly speculative, though built on current data about how fast the models are improving. It's being widely read inside the AI companies. It captures the belief — or fear — that LLMs could one day think for themselves and start to act on their own. Our purpose isn't to alarm or sound doomy. Rather, you should know what the people building these models talk about incessantly. You can dismiss it as hype or hysteria. But researchers at all these companies worry LLMs, because we don't fully understand them, could outsmart their human creators and go rogue. In the AI 2027 report, the authors warn that competition with China will push LLMs potentially beyond human control, because no one will want to slow progress even if they see signs of acute danger. The safe-landing theory: Google's Sundar Pichai — and really all of the big AI company CEOs — argue that humans will learn to better understand how these machines work and find clever, if yet unknown ways, to control them and " improve lives." The companies all have big research and safety teams, and a huge incentive to tame the technologies if they want to ever realize their full value.
Business Wire
17 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Alnylam Receives European Commission Approval for AMVUTTRA ® (vutrisiran) for the Treatment of ATTR Amyloidosis with Cardiomyopathy
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALNY), the leading RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics company, today announced that the European Commission (EC) has granted approval for the treatment of wild-type or hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adult patients with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) as an additional indication for its orphan RNAi therapeutic AMVUTTRA ® (vutrisiran). The approval broadens the indication for AMVUTTRA, which now becomes the first and only RNAi therapeutic approved by the EC for the treatment of the cardiomyopathy manifestations of ATTR amyloidosis and the polyneuropathy manifestations of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR) in adults. Alnylam Receives European Commission Approval for AMVUTTRA® (vutrisiran) for the Treatment of ATTR Amyloidosis with Cardiomyopathy Share 'Estimates show approximately 100,000 people are affected by ATTR amyloidosis across Europe, most with cardiomyopathy, so this approval marks a critical step toward addressing this underserved patient population,' said Pushkal Garg, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at Alnylam. 'AMVUTTRA is supported by a well-established efficacy and safety profile, with over 6,000 patient-years of global experience in the treatment of hATTR with polyneuropathy. By delivering rapid and sustained knockdown of TTR through convenient, quarterly dosing, it offers a clinically differentiated approach with the potential to transform outcomes for patients living with this debilitating and potentially fatal disease. We now look forward to securing access to AMVUTTRA for eligible patients across the EU as quickly as possible.' The EC decision is based on positive results from the pivotal HELIOS-B Phase 3 study – a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, global trial that enrolled a diverse group of patients reflective of the contemporary ATTR-CM population, including those receiving substantial concurrent use of available standard-of-care therapies such as tafamidis and SGLT2 inhibitors. AMVUTTRA met all 10 pre-specified primary and secondary endpoints across both the overall and monotherapy populations. These included statistically significant reductions in all-cause mortality and recurrent cardiovascular events, as well as significant improvements in functional capacity (6-minute walk test), health status and quality of life (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire), and heart failure symptoms and severity (NYHA class). In the overall population, AMVUTTRA achieved a 28% reduction in the primary composite of all-cause mortality and recurrent cardiovascular events as compared to placebo. Mortality in this population was significantly reduced by 36% through 42 months in a pre-specified secondary endpoint analysis which included up to 36 months of the double-blind period plus six months of open-label extension. In HELIOS-B, rates of adverse events (AEs), serious AEs, severe AEs and AEs leading to study drug discontinuation were similar between the AMVUTTRA and placebo arms. Adverse drug reactions of AMVUTTRA include injection site reactions and increase in blood alkaline phosphatase and alanine transaminase. Detailed results from the HELIOS-B study were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. 1 'The HELIOS-B findings provide compelling evidence to support the use of vutrisiran as a first-line treatment option for patients with ATTR-CM,' said Marianna Fontana, M.D., Ph.D., HELIOS-B investigator, Professor of Cardiology, University College London, National Amyloidosis Center, Royal Free Hospital, London. 'As a physician, it is a privilege to see the true impact on patients in the clinic. The trial enrolled a broad population reflective of real-world clinical practice, and that's what makes the results so meaningful. This is a milestone for patients, who now have a new treatment option that has the potential to significantly improve outcomes of this disease.' ATTR-CM is caused by the deposition of misfolded TTR fibrils, which drive progressive and irreversible cardiovascular damage and premature death. AMVUTTRA is an RNAi therapeutic that works upstream by delivering sustained knockdown of disease-causing TTR at its source. In the EU, it is administered as a subcutaneous injection once every three months, either by a healthcare professional, or self-administered by patients or their caregivers, offering flexibility in treatment delivery. 'Amyloidosis is a serious and progressive disease that significantly impacts not only patients' physical health, but also their quality of life and independence. I am thrilled by the news of a new therapy for people in the EU living with ATTR-CM who often face delayed diagnosis. Having a new treatment option available marks a welcome development for the amyloidosis community,' said Giovanni d'Alessio, President of the Amyloidosis Alliance. In May 2025, the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP) adopted a positive opinion on the maintenance of the EU Orphan Designation for AMVUTTRA in ATTR amyloidosis. AMVUTTRA was approved in March 2025 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) for the treatment of the cardiomyopathy of wild-type or hereditary ATTR amyloidosis in adults. Alnylam continues to pursue additional global submissions to bring vutrisiran to patients worldwide. Indications In the EU, AMVUTTRA ® (vutrisiran) is indicated for the treatment of: hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adult patients with stage 1 or stage 2 polyneuropathy (hATTR-PN). wild-type or hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis in adult patients with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). Important Safety Information Reduced Serum Vitamin A Levels and Recommended Supplementation Vutrisiran treatment leads to a decrease in serum vitamin A levels. Supplementation of approximately, but not exceeding, 2500 IU to 3000 IU vitamin A per day is advised for patients taking vutrisiran. Patients should be referred to an ophthalmologist if they develop ocular symptoms suggestive of vitamin A deficiency (e.g., night blindness). Adverse Reactions Commonly reported adverse reactions with vutrisiran were injection site reactions and increase in blood alkaline phosphatase and alanine transaminase. For additional information about vutrisiran, please see the full Summary of Product Characteristics. About AMVUTTRA ® (vutrisiran) AMVUTTRA ® (vutrisiran) is an RNAi therapeutic that delivers rapid knockdown of variant and wild‑type transthyretin (TTR), addressing the underlying cause of transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis. Administered quarterly via subcutaneous injection, vutrisiran is approved and marketed in more than 15 countries for the treatment of the polyneuropathy of hereditary transthyretin-mediated amyloidosis (hATTR-PN) in adults. It is also approved in the U.S. and Brazil for the treatment of wild-type or hereditary ATTR amyloidosis in adult patients with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). In the EU, AMVUTTRA is administered once every three months, either by a healthcare professional or through self-administration by patients or their caregivers. About ATTR Transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) is an underdiagnosed, rapidly progressive, debilitating and fatal disease caused by misfolded transthyretin (TTR) proteins, which accumulate as amyloid deposits in various parts of the body, including the nerves, heart and gastrointestinal tract. Patients may present with polyneuropathy, cardiomyopathy or both manifestations of disease. There are two different forms of ATTR – hereditary ATTR (hATTR), which is caused by a TTR gene variant and affects approximately 50,000 people worldwide, and wild-type ATTR (wtATTR), which occurs without a TTR gene variant and impacts an estimated 200,000-300,000 people worldwide. 2-5 About RNAi RNAi (RNA interference) is a natural cellular process of gene silencing that represents one of the most promising and rapidly advancing frontiers in biology and drug development today. 6 Its discovery has been heralded as 'a major scientific breakthrough that happens once every decade or so,' and was recognized with the award of the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. 7 By harnessing the natural biological process of RNAi occurring in our cells, a new class of medicines known as RNAi therapeutics is now a reality. Small interfering RNA (siRNA), the molecules that mediate RNAi and comprise Alnylam's RNAi therapeutic platform, function upstream of today's medicines by potently silencing messenger RNA (mRNA) – the genetic precursors that encode for disease-causing or disease pathway proteins – thus preventing them from being made. 6 This is a revolutionary approach with the potential to transform the care of patients with genetic and other diseases. About Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) has led the translation of RNA interference (RNAi) into a whole new class of innovative medicines with the potential to transform the lives of people afflicted with rare and prevalent diseases with unmet need. Based on Nobel Prize-winning science, RNAi therapeutics represent a powerful, clinically validated approach yielding transformative medicines. Since its founding in 2002, Alnylam has led the RNAi Revolution and continues to deliver on a bold vision to turn scientific possibility into reality. Alnylam has a deep pipeline of investigational medicines, including multiple product candidates that are in late-stage development. Alnylam is executing on its ' Alnylam P 5 x25 ' strategy to deliver transformative medicines in both rare and common diseases benefiting patients around the world through sustainable innovation and exceptional financial performance, resulting in a leading biotech profile. Alnylam is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. Alnylam Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All statements other than historical statements of fact regarding Alnylam's expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects including, without limitation, Alnylam's expectations regarding the safety and efficacy of AMVUTTRA for the treatment of ATTR-CM; the potential for AMVUTTRA to be used as a first-line treatment for ATTR-CM; the potential for AMVUTTRA to address the underserved ATTR-CM patient population and to improve outcomes for ATTR-CM patients; and Alnylam's ability to secure access to AMVUTTRA for eligible patients across the EU and the timing of such access should be considered forward-looking statements. Actual results and future plans may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important risks, uncertainties and other factors, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to: Alnylam's ability to successfully execute on its ' Alnylam P 5 x25 ' strategy; Alnylam's ability to successfully demonstrate the efficacy and safety of its product candidates; the pre-clinical and clinical results for Alnylam's product candidates; actions or advice of regulatory agencies and Alnylam's ability to obtain regulatory approval for its product candidates, as well as favorable pricing and reimbursement; successfully launching, marketing and selling Alnylam's approved products globally; and any delays, interruptions or failures in the manufacture and supply of Alnylam's product candidates or its marketed products; as well as those risks more fully discussed in the 'Risk Factors' filed with Alnylam's 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as may be updated from time to time in Alnylam's subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and in its other SEC filings. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent Alnylam's views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. Alnylam explicitly disclaims any obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update any forward-looking statements.
CNBC
19 minutes ago
- CNBC
The way you program an AI is like the way you program a person, says Nvidia's Huang
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says artificial intelligence is the "great equalizer" because it lets anyone program using everyday language. Speaking at London Tech Week on Monday, Huang said that, historically, computing was hard and not available to everyone. "We had to learn programming languages. We had to architect it. We had to design these computers that are very complicated," he said on stage alongside U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer. "Now, all of a sudden ... there's a new programming language. This new programming language is called 'human.'" Conversational AI models were thrown into the spotlight in 2022 when OpenAI's ChatGPT exploded onto the scene. In February, the San Francisco-based tech company said it had 400 million weekly active users. Users can ask chatbots, such as ChatGPT, Google's Gemini or Microsoft's Copilot, questions and they respond in a conversational way that feels more like talking to another human than an AI system. CEO Huang, whose company engineers some of the world's most advanced semiconductors and AI chips, highlighted that this technology can now be used in programming. He highlighted that very few people know how to use programming languages like C++ or Python, but "everybody ... knows 'human'." "The way you program a computer today, to ask the computer to do something for you, even write a program, generate images, write a poem — just ask it nicely," he said. "And the thing that's really, really quite amazing is the way you program an AI is like the way you program a person." He gave the example of simply asking a computer to write a poem to describe the keynote speech at the London Tech Week event. "You say: You are an incredible poet ... And I would like you to write a poem to describe today's keynote. And without very much effort, this AI would help you generate such a wonderful poem," he said. "And when it answers ... you could say: I feel like you could do even better. And it would go off and think about it, and it'll come back and say, in fact, I I can do better, and it does do a better job." Huang's comments come as a growing number of companies — such as Shopify, Duolingo and Fiverr — encourage their employees to incorporate AI into their work. Indeed, last week OpenAI announced that it has 3 million paying business users. Huang regularly touts AI's ability to help workers do their jobs more efficiently and has encouraged workers to embrace the technology as they look to make themselves valuable employees — especially given the horror stories around AI's potential to replace jobs. "This way of interacting with computers, I think, is something that almost anybody can do, and I would just encourage everybody to engage it," Huang added on Monday. "Children are already doing that themselves naturally, and this is going to be transformative.
