CIO Aims to Expand Team by Creating Digital Clones of Staff - 1

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CIO Aims to Expand Team by Creating Digital Clones of Staff

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

UC San Diego’s CIO wants to use AI agents and digital twins to automate IT work, improve cybersecurity, and ease staff burdens.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • UCSD CIO proposes using AI agents and digital twins to assist IT staff.
  • UCSD faces complex cyber threats due to oceanographic research.
  • Digital clones may improve productivity and staff well-being.

During this week’s Cisco Live conference , Dr. Vince Kellen proposed to utilize AI agents and digital twins of seasoned IT staff for handling repetitive tasks and late-night emergencies, as first reported by The Register .

Speaking to a packed audience, Kellen said, “All roads are leading to high levels of automation whenever we can,” reports The Register.

The university operates as a small city since it welcomes more than 100,000 people per day, while having to deal with declining student enrollment and limited financial resources

Kellen predicts that AI systems will acquire knowledge from tech workers to manage increasing demands in the future. “We have all this knowledge in human beings around network policy that we have to get out of their minds in a kind of drip irrigation fashion,” he said, as reported by The Register.

Kellen believes that slowly transferring this knowledge to AI would enable IT teams to decrease their workload and enhance network performance.

The Oceanography Institute at UCSD also faces national security threats. “When you put sonar in the water, you discover more than fish, and other countries want to know about that,” he warned, as reported by The Register.

Foreign-backed cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, requiring staff to automate basic defenses so they can focus on more dangerous threats.

Kellen believes AI “has the potential to allow proactive detection of issues” and sees digital clones as a way to preserve staff expertise while easing their burden. “Then that person doesn’t have to be tortured when there’s another incident. They don’t get called the next time,” he added, as reported by The Register.

His idea raises a provocative question: Would you let your employer digitally clone your expertise if it meant fewer stressful callouts? As automation grows, the line between human and machine work may blur, but for IT teams, it could mean much-needed relief.

However, increased automation also raises cybersecurity concerns. Systems operated by automated IT workers and AI agents present attractive targets to hackers, since an attack on these systems could result in extensive disruptions.

Indeed, a compromised digital twin could be used to bypass security protocols and spread malware at a faster rate than human operators.

A report from the World Economic Forum argues that attackers can contaminate AI training data or discover vulnerabilities in AI models, which results in system failures or incorrect output generation.

These “data poisoning” and model exploitation attacks are often easy to carry out but hard to defend against, as current security measures are insufficient, as noted by ITPro .

Despite these risks, 96% of IT professionals recognize AI agents as a security threat, yet most organizations rush to implement them without proper controls or policies, as reported by ZDNet.

Nvidia To Build The World’s First Industrial AI Cloud In Germany - 2

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Nvidia To Build The World’s First Industrial AI Cloud In Germany

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Nvidia announced on Wednesday, during the VivaTech conference in Paris, that it will build the world’s first industrial AI cloud in Germany. Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, explained that the technology will help Europe’s industrial leaders—including Mercedes-Benz and BMW—accelerate manufacturing applications.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Nvidia will build the world’s first industrial AI cloud in Germany.
  • CEO Jensen Huang said they expect to build 20 facilities, and support major European manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
  • The new technology is expected to accelerate manufacturing applications and the development of local AI infrastructure, innovation, and systems.

According to Nvidia’s announcement , the Germany-based factory will feature the company’s advanced graphics processing units (GPUs)—including NVIDIA DGX B200 systems and NVIDIA RTX PRO Servers—for applications in design, engineering, and simulation.

“In the era of AI, every manufacturer needs two factories: one for making things, and one for creating the intelligence that powers them,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “By building Europe’s first industrial AI infrastructure, we’re enabling the region’s leading industrial companies to advance simulation-first, AI-driven manufacturing.”

By combining IA and robotics, Nvidia plans to support major European manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group, Schaeffler, and Maserati, in areas like factory planning, simulated product design, and AI-powered operations and logistics.

According to Reuters , Huang is committed to expanding this technology and helping AI modeldevelopers in multiple languages and domains. “In just two years, we will increase the amount of AI computing capacity in Europe by a factor of 10,” said Huang at the VivaTech conference, adding that they expect to build around 20 AI factories.

Nvidia is also partnering with Mistral AI—which recently launched its most advanced AI model, Magistral —to develop AI systems optimized for Nvidia’s most advanced chips. Huang also raised concerns about lagging AI adoption in parts of Europe, noting that Britain currently lacks the necessary computing infrastructure.

Following the Paris AI Summit in February, the European Union launched the initiative InvestAI to promote investment in AI, including a €20 billion fund for AI gigafactories.

“Europe has now awakened to the importance of AI factories and the importance of the AI infrastructure,” added Huang.

Huang is expected to travel to Berlin this Friday to meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Details regarding the location, cost, and timeline for the construction of the new facility have not yet been disclosed.