Hackers to compete for nearly $20 million in prizes by using A.I. for cybersecurity, Biden administration announces

President Joe Biden delivered a speech on the subject of Artificial Intelligence from the Roosevelt Room at the White House on July 21, 2023, situated in Washington, DC. The event featured the participation of various prominent AI companies, including Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, who joined forces with the Biden administration to launch the AI Cyber Challenge. This initiative aims to incentivize hackers to employ artificial intelligence for safeguarding critical U.S. infrastructure against cybersecurity threats. The announcement was made during the Black Hat USA hacking conference held in Las Vegas.

The AI Cyber Challenge is set to offer a substantial sum of nearly $20 million in prizes. The participating AI corporations, namely Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI, will contribute their advanced technologies to the competition. The process involves an initial qualifying event scheduled for the spring, wherein up to 20 teams with the highest scores will progress to the semifinal competition at DEF CON 2024—a prominent cybersecurity conference. Among these, up to five teams will be awarded $2 million each and will advance to the final round at DEF CON 2025. The top three teams will also be eligible for additional prizes, with the winning team securing a grand prize of $4 million, intended for the team that demonstrates the most effective protection of vital software, as outlined in an official press release.

A noteworthy aspect of the competition is that participants are required to open-source their methods, thereby making their solutions widely accessible. The Open Source Security Foundation under the Linux Foundation is involved as an advisor to the challenge, promoting openness and collaboration within the cybersecurity realm.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is responsible for managing the competition. As part of its effort to ensure inclusivity, DARPA has pledged to provide up to $1 million to seven small businesses that express an interest in participating, aiming to encourage a diverse range of contributors.

This initiative follows in the footsteps of previous governmental efforts to spur innovation through hacking competitions. Notably, in 2014, DARPA introduced the Cyber Grand Challenge, which sought to develop an open-source automated defense system capable of safeguarding computers from cyberattacks. This earlier initiative shares a similar structure with the newly launched two-year AI Cyber Challenge.

The government's primary objective with this initiative is to enhance the security of critical U.S. systems using the potential of artificial intelligence. Perri Adams, the program manager at the DARPA Information Innovation Office, emphasized the importance of staying ahead in defense strategies and highlighted AI as a promising avenue for achieving this goal. The collaboration between cybersecurity and AI experts, coupled with access to a suite of resources from various companies, is expected to yield innovative outcomes in the realm of cybersecurity.