The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is calling for research proposals for its Anticipatory and Adaptive Anti-Money Laundering, or A3ML, program, which seeks to improve the ability of U.S. authorities to eliminate global money laundering.
Need for Algorithmic Capabilities
DARPA said Thursday that the goal of the A3ML program is the development of algorithms that can rapidly sift through graphs of financial transactions, detect suspicious patterns and learn new ones. The algorithms would also have to be able to match those data patterns with patterns of illicit financial behavior.
Ensuring Privacy
These new algorithmic capabilities would work to replace current analytical processes, which are manual, reactive and expensive. The capabilities would also have to be able to function without sharing sensitive financial data.
Commenting on the issue, A3ML Program Manager David Rushing Dewhurst said, “Money laundering finances our adversaries’ weapons programs, global terrorism, and the illicit drug trade, all of which threaten U.S. national security. The way we address these threats today is largely through manual data collection and analysis methods that threaten privacy. We are looking for new technological ideas that preserve privacy while setting a course to end to our adversaries’ financial warfare.”
Proposers Day
DARPA will sponsor a proposers day for the A3ML program on Feb. 20. Interested parties have until Feb. 10 to register.
