Security News > 2024 > August > DARPA, ARPA-H award $14m to 7 AIxCC semifinalists, with a catch

One year after it began, the DARPA AI Cyber Challenge has whittled its pool of contestants down to seven semifinalists.

The contest, unexpectedly announced at Black Hat in 2023, saw teams competing to build AI models able to better secure open source code undergirding many of the systems used in critical infrastructure.

42 of them made it to the semifinals which culminated at DEF CON in Las Vegas last weekend, with seven of the teams each awarded a $2 million prize and a spot in next year's finals.

A look at the challenge dashboard in the AIxCC village at DEF CON 32 - Click to enlarge.

The goal for semifinalists was to develop a "Cyber reasoning system capable of automatically processing" the challenge projects.

Teams agreeing to go open source will be required to hand their projects over to the Linux Foundation's Open Source Security Foundation, who will become stewards of the models, AIxCC technical project manager Jeff Diecks told us at DEF CON. Specifics of the deals won't be hammered out or announced until next year's finals, DARPA said.

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