The Biden administration on Wednesday announced a two-year competition calling on participants to use artificial intelligence to create new ways to safeguard and protect America’s crucial software and systems. 

The move marks the White House’s latest action to ramp-up the government’s response to the evolving field of AI. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Biden administration announced a two-year competition called the AI Cyber Challenge, calling on participants to use artificial intelligence to create new ways to safeguard and protect America’s crucial software and systems 

  • The challenge will be led by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which will dedicate nearly $20 million in prize money to the competition 

  • Four major technology companies and leaders in AI: Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI are lending their technology to be used by competitors in the challenge 
  • The goal is to spur participants to think creatively to find and fix vulnerabilities in technologies and design cybersecurity solutions 

The AI Cyber Challenge, as the administration has branded it, was officially announced on Wednesday at the cybersecurity event series Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas. 

“This competition will be a clarion call for all kinds of creative people and organizations to bolster the security of critical software that American families and businesses and all of our society relies on,” director of the White House office of science and technology policy Arati Prabhakar said on a call with reporters Tuesday. 

The challenge will be led by the U.S. Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA will dedicate nearly $20 million in prize money spread amongst the competition’s top finishers. 

White House deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology Anne Neuberger told reporters on Tuesday the challenge will “help us stay ahead.” 

“Fundamentally, there is no national security without cybersecurity. And in cybersecurity, there's always a race between offense and defense,” she said. “Defense always has to be one step ahead. We see the promise of AI in enabling defense to be one step ahead.” 

Four major technology companies and leaders in AI: Google, Anthropic, Microsoft and OpenAI are lending their technology to be used by competitors in the challenge. 

The move comes weeks after President Joe Biden announced seven tech firms, including the four taking part in this challenge, agreed to commit to a voluntary set of AI safeguards in coordination with the federal government.  

“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,” DARPA program manager at the information innovation office Perri Adams told reporters on the call. 

A White House official on the call said the goal is to spur participants to think creatively to find and fix vulnerabilities in technologies and design cybersecurity solutions. The official noted examples could be ideas to identify bugs in energy grids or bugs in signaling systems of transportation. The administration, according to the official, hopes to implement the solutions across the government. 

The teams partaking in the challenge will first compete at an event this spring where up to 20 will be selected to move on to the next round at the cyber conference DEF CON 2024. The top five competitors will battle it out a year later at DEF CON 2025. 

The administration also noted it is prioritizing equal access among businesses to participate, giving up to seven small businesses $1 million each to compete.