The good, the bad and the ugly: Artificial intelligence Access AI

While the future promised by films such as Minority Report remains a fantasy, advancements in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) make a world where computers outsmart humans seem increasingly likely. Computer security is an arena that would be an obvious benefactor from AI. Computer code is riddled with flaws because it is inherently complex, poorly documented and of course…written by humans. Today, it is largely the task of humans to root out those same flaws and patch them – a costly and time-consuming process that ensures a large window of opportunity for hackers, should they uncover those flaws before they can be addressed. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was so interested in the potential impact of AI on computer security that it was willing to place a £44M bet to find out what that potential was. It held the Cyber Grand Challenge at the famed DEFCON security conference last summer with £4M in prize money on the line.