"Cybersecurity is a race between offense and defense," said Anne Neuberger, the U.S. government's deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology. "We know malicious actors are already using AI to accelerate identifying vulnerabilities or build malicious software," she added in a statement to Reuters. He said his agency had seen AI being used for everything from creating phishing emails and writing malicious computer code to spreading disinformation. The contest signals official attempts to tackle an emerging threat that experts are still trying to fully grasp. The Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), a U.S. group of experts trying to improve open source software security, will be in charge of ensuring the "winning software code is put to use right away," the U.S. government said.

---

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Anne Neuberger, cybersecurity, Samy Khoury, Neuberger, Zeba Siddiqui, Raphael Satter, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: REUTERS, Defense, Research Projects Agency, DARPA, White, Google, Microsoft, Security, Thomson Locations: U.S, San Francisco, Washington