“Say What You Mean”: Natural Language Access Control With Large Language Models for Internet of Things

Access control in IoT (Internet of Things, networks of connected devices) is complex because policies need to consider dynamic factors like time and location, but existing systems are too rigid or require experts to manually translate natural language requirements into code, creating errors. LACE (Language-based Access Control Engine) is a new system that uses LLMs (large language models, AI systems trained on text) combined with retrieval-augmented reasoning (pulling in relevant information to help the AI decide) and formal validation (checking rules are logically correct) to let users write access control policies in plain English, which the system automatically converts into machine-enforced rules.