The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has published the scoring system for the final leg of a competition to build an artificial intelligence-powered system that could safeguard the nation’s critical infrastructure. The AI Cyber Challenge, or AIxCC, final competition will assess competing systems on their ability to find and fix intentionally introduced synthetic and real world vulnerabilities, the agency said Wednesday.
Table of Contents
Mission to Protect CI Systems
The competition recognizes the threat malicious actors from around the world pose to systems Americans rely on every day. From bridges and highways to hospitals, the systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks.
“Cyberthreats to critical infrastructure are broad and unrelenting,” commented Andrew Carney, program manager for the AI Cyber Challenge. “We’re looking for breakthrough systems that can give software defenders an edge when it comes to outpacing adversaries.”
AIxCC Details
The final competition will have four rounds culminating at DEF CON 33, which will take place in Las Vegas in August. Only the final round will be scored. The first three rounds will be unscored exhibitions of proposed cyber reasoning systems.
During the final round, each CRS will showcase how it identifies and patches vulnerabilities in software critical to industry, national security and the public.
“Now, we’re raising the bar and putting the top systems to the test against a broader and more complex range of challenges, with the goal of developing systems that the public and private sectors can use immediately to secure critical code,” added Carney.
Seven teams that advanced during the semifinal round held in August 2024 will participate in the final competition.
Related Articles
Gregory Barbaccia, federal chief information officer and a 2025 Wash100 awardee, has shared his insights on how the federal government should advance digital transformation. “I notice a lot of the government considers itself to be ‘digital,’ but in reality, we’ve only digitized, not transformed. Sure we went 0-1, but that should have just been the beginning,” Barbaccia wrote in a LinkedIn post. He noted the lack of automation and that workflows remain unchanged despite the replacement of paper ledgers with spreadsheets. “Files are shared over email instead of through real-time collaboration tools,” he added. Advancing Digital Transformation in Federal Government
The Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules that seek to eliminate unnecessary paperwork and address regulatory barriers to the ground-station-as-a-service, or GSaaS, business model as part of efforts to drive innovation in the U.S. space economy. FCC said Thursday the new rules establish a process for ground station operators to secure a baseline license without first identifying a satellite point of communication. A simple FCC notification will be required for each new point of communication. According to FCC, the change would eliminate nearly half of earth station modification applications. “Making the smallest change to a satellite system or earth
The General Services Administration has announced a OneGov agreement with Amazon Web Services that will provide up to $1 billion in direct incentive credits to federal civilian agencies. According to GSA, the direct incentive credits, aggregated across the agencies, will include savings on core AWS cloud services through AWS credits, infrastructure and application technologies modernization through AWS modernization credits, access to AWS training and certification through training credits and a streamlined engagement model with greater savings for direct contracts through direct partnerships. Advancing America’s AI Leadership The agreement is expected to accelerate large-scale IT transformation and boost AI innovation across