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

Hackers may have the prospect to compete for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in prizes by utilizing synthetic intelligence to guard vital U.S. infrastructure from cybersecurity dangers, the Biden administration introduced Wednesday.

The AI Cyber Challenge will provide almost $20 million in prizes and consists of collaboration from main AI firms Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, who will make their expertise accessible for the competitors. The problem was introduced on the Black Hat USA hacking convention in Las Vegas.

A qualifying occasion will likely be held within the spring, the place as much as 20 top-scoring groups will likely be chosen to advance to the semifinal competitors at DEF CON 2024, a cybersecurity convention. Up to 5 of these groups will win $2 million every and advance to the ultimate at DEF CON 2025. The prime three groups will likely be eligible for added prizes, together with a prime prize of $4 million for the crew that “best secures vital software,” in response to a press launch.

Competitors will likely be requested to open supply their methods in order that their options can be utilized extensively. The Linux Foundation’s Open Source Security Foundation can also be serving as an advisor on the problem.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is operating the competitors, mentioned it might give as much as $1 million to seven small companies that need to take part, with a view to embrace a wide selection of individuals.

This is not the primary time the federal government has used a hacking competitors to advertise innovation. In 2014, DARPA launched the Cyber Grand Challenge to develop an open-source automated protection system that would defend a pc from cyberattacks, with an identical construction to the brand new two-year problem.

The authorities hopes that the promise of AI may help additional safe vital U.S. methods.

“We have to keep defense one step ahead. And AI offers a very promising approach for that,” Perri Adams, program supervisor on the DARPA Information Innovation Office, informed reporters on a name Tuesday. “This is a chance to explore what’s possible when experts in cybersecurity and AI have access to a suite of cross-company resources of combined unprecedented caliber.”

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

WATCH: Closing keynote: The White House is critical about cybersecurity