The Biden Administration has announced its plans to launch the ‘AI Cyber Challenge’ (AIxCC), a DARPA-led challenge competition aimed at building AI systems to proactively identify and fix software vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical digital infrastructure.
The two-year development program is open to competitors throughout the US and is being hosted by DARPA in collaboration with Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. These companies will provide expertise in the field and access to their AI technologies.
The challenge aims to empower cyber defenses by quickly exploiting and fixing software vulnerabilities. It is described as a way for the public and private sectors to work together to tackle the critical topic of AI for cybersecurity. The White House has asked DARPA to take on this challenge.
Securing the nation’s federal software systems against intrusion is a challenging task, and the competition aims to address this. The competition offers nearly $20 million in prize money, with $7 million set aside for small businesses to ensure they have a fair chance at competing.
The open qualifying event will be held next spring, with the top scoring teams advancing to the semifinals at DEF CON 24. The top five teams will win monetary prizes and move on to the finals at DEF CON 25. The top three scoring teams from the finals will win even more money.
The winning team will be encouraged to open-source their program, with the help of The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) as an advisor to the challenge. The goal is to put the code to immediate use by open-source developers and commercial industry to better defend critical infrastructure.
The Biden White House has emphasized the importance of AI and has unveiled various initiatives to advance its development and responsible use. This includes the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, an AI risk management framework, and investing in national research institutes focused on AI and machine learning.
The ‘AI Cyber Challenge’ is another step towards realizing the potential of AI in improving cybersecurity and defending critical underpinnings of society.
