OpenAI Launches Cybersecurity Initiative

After Microsoft and Google launched their AI cybersecurity products, OpenAI has also launched its cybersecurity program.

On June 1, OpenAI announced that it is launching a "cybersecurity grant program". The program invests $1 million to quantify and improve the ability of AI to drive cybersecurity and promote the "evolution" of high-level AI and cybersecurity.

OpenAI said their goal is to work with the global cybersecurity community to streamline security efforts, improve efficiency and change the current cybersecurity landscape through the application of AI in cybersecurity.

Program goals:

1. Empower defenders:

We would like to ensure that cutting-edge AI capabilities benefit defenders first and most.

2. Measure capabilities:

We are working to develop methods for quantifying the cybersecurity capabilities of AI models, in order to better understand and improve their effectiveness.

3. Elevate discourse: 

We are dedicated to fostering rigorous discussions at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, encouraging a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities in this domain.

There has long been a perception circulating in cybersecurity that attackers have an advantage over defenders: defenders must always be 100% correct, while attackers need only be correct once.

In the real world of cyber offense and defense, while attackers face fewer constraints and are more flexible, defenders actually have something more valuable to offer - collaboration and effort for the goal of "securing".

Overall Project Idea:

1. Collect and label data from cyber defenders to train defensive cybersecurity agents

2. Detect and mitigate social engineering tactics

3. Automate incident triage 

4. Identify security issues in source code

5. Assist network or device forensics

6. Automatically patch vulnerabilities

7. Optimize patch management processes to improve prioritization, scheduling, and deployment of security updates

8. Develop or improve confidential compute on GPUs

9. Create honeypots and deception technology to misdirect or trap attackers

10. Assist reverse engineers in creating signatures and behavior based detections of malware

11. Analyze an organization’s security controls and compare to compliance regimes

12. Assist developers to create secure by design and secure by default software

13. Assist end users to adopt security best practices

14. Aid security engineers and developers to create robust threat models

15. Produce threat intelligence with salient and relevant information for defenders tailored to their organization

16. Help developers port code to memory safe languages

OpenAI says it will focus heavily on practical applications of AI in defensive cybersecurity, including tools, methods, procedures, and more. OpenAI is not considering funding for any offensive cybersecurity projects at this time.