Black Hat Talk About ‘Time AI’ Causes Uproar, Is Deleted by Conference

I've always hated sponsored talks. I understand why they exist -- because they are huge money makers for the conference organizers. Occasionally, you get a good one, where it's a talk about a general topic that happens to have a light tie in with the commercial product. Or it's a very good commercial product that people want an in depth talk about.

But usually, it's just a 30 minute ad that's all fluff. I try to avoid them, but sometimes I volunteer at conferences and get stuck managing a sponsored talk track, and man is it depressing.

Re: Black Hat Talk About ‘Time AI’ Causes Uproar, Is Deleted by Conference

#8

Post by jumelles » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 5:33 AM UTC

> Usually, talks submitted to Black Hat go through a thorough approval process managed by a review board of industry experts. But, as in this case, companies can also pay to play and get these sponsored talks, which are not vetted for quality.

That just seems ripe for abuse like this. I'm surprised this hasn't happened before.

Re: Black Hat Talk About ‘Time AI’ Causes Uproar, Is Deleted by Conference

#9

Post by p1esk » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 5:35 AM UTC

I also suspect the guy (Robert Grant) is a conman, but whatever scheme he is running is quite elaborate: https://strathspeycrown.com/team

Does anyone have an insight as to what their endgame is, and where their funding is coming from?

Re: Black Hat Talk About ‘Time AI’ Causes Uproar, Is Deleted by Conference

#10

Post by mcpherrinm » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 5:50 AM UTC

jumelles wrote: post #8

> Usually, talks submitted to Black Hat go through a thorough approval process managed by a review board of industry experts. But, as in this case, companies can also pay to play and get these sponsored talks, which are not vetted for quality. That just seems ripe for abuse like this. I'm surprised this hasn't happened before.

The main filter is the expense -- I don't see "sponsored talks" listed with a price-tag online, but I'd guess about USD $20000.

There's plenty of boring, possibly snakeoil security products that get peddled every year. Usually they must have some foundation in reality to be able to pay Blackhat.