By Ben Liebing
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration’s AI cybersecurity competition is now beginning to field registrations and proposals for its two-year-long competition that will let teams of hackers compete for up to $20 million in prize money.
The artificial intelligence (AI) challenge is an initiative to protect the United States’ most important software, “such as code that helps run the internet and our critical infrastructure,” according to the White House press release.
“The AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) will challenge competitors across the United States, to identify and fix software vulnerabilities using AI,” the release reads.
The competition will be led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), with major tech and AI players collaborating: Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI (the pioneers behind ChatGPT).
The big-money challenge was unveiled at the Black Hat USA hacking conference—the largest hacking conference in the world—in Las Vegas on Aug. 9.
“AIxCC represents a first-of-its-kind collaboration between top AI companies…to create AI-driven systems to help address one of society’s greatest challenges – cybersecurity,” said Perri Adams, DARPA’s AIxCC program manager, via a statement.
With AI on the ever-present rise and the topic of constant industry disruption, the DARPA competition will set a precedent for the future of cybersecurity and governmental and private sector cooperation.
Mike Chaput, a 2023 MSP Success Titan of the Industry, sees nuance in the evolving future of AI and the technology’s relationship as it pertains to the MSP industry.
“At this point I am bullish on the long-term ability for AI in our industry, but not super bullish on it,” Chaput told MSP Success President Robin Robins in a recent interview.
“I think it’s going to affect the middle layer of our technical talent. I don’t think AI is going to be able to replace the experts. But, let’s say by 2028, maybe AI will be significantly better than it is now. But my thinking is to wait until things get mature and it starts to become standard, then adopt, because otherwise you’ll be chasing your tail.”
Read the 2023 MSP Success Titans of Industry special report and watch the videos HERE!
Curious about what the future holds and how big of an impact AI will have on YOUR business? Stay tuned as we continue to explore the fascinating and ever-changing world of ChatGPT, AI, and how the future of technology continues to evolve in Eye on AI.
