“The Grand Cyber Challenge at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas pitted artificial intelligences against each other, while their human creators sat back and watched. Fighting for a $4 million prize pot from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), each AI tried to hack its opponents’ computer systems. They sought weak spots and figured out how to exploit them while defending their own computers.

The sophistication of the artificial hackers impressed many of those present. ‘This really caught me by surprise,’ says Matt Devost of cybersecurity firm FusionX in Washington DC. It could transform the security scene in the next 10 years, he says.”

Source: Autonomous AI guards to stalk the internet fighting hackers | New Scientist