OpenAI cybersecurity grant program: USD 10,000 grant towards enhancing defensive cybersecurity technologies

Finance June 23, 2023

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OpenAI is launching the Cybersecurity Grant Program—a $1M initiative to boost and quantify AI-powered cybersecurity capabilities and to foster high-level AI and cybersecurity discourse.

OpenAI’s goal is to work with defenders across the globe to change the power dynamics of cybersecurity through the application of AI and the coordination of like-minded individuals working for OpenAI’s collective safety.

The program seeks to:

Empower defenders: OpenAI would like to ensure that cutting-edge AI capabilities benefit defenders first and most.
Measure capabilities: OpenA is working to develop methods for quantifying the cybersecurity capabilities of AI models, in order to better understand and improve their effectiveness.
Elevate discourse: OpenAI is 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.

A traditional view in cybersecurity is that the landscape naturally advantages attackers over defenders. This is summed up in the well-worn axiom: “Defense must be correct 100% of the time, attackers only have to be right once.” While it may be true that attackers face fewer constraints and take advantage of their flexibility, defenders have something more valuable—coordination towards a common goal of keeping people safe.

Below are some general project ideas that our team has put forward:

Collect and label data from cyber defenders to train defensive cybersecurity agents
Detect and mitigate social engineering tactics
Automate incident triage
Identify security issues in source code
Assist network or device forensics
Automatically patch vulnerabilities
Optimize patch management processes to improve prioritization, scheduling, and deployment of security updates
Develop or improve confidential compute on GPUs
Create honeypots and deception technology to misdirect or trap attackers
Assist reverse engineers in creating signatures and behavior based detections of malware
Analyze an organization’s security controls and compare to compliance regimes
Assist developers to create secure by design and secure by default software
Assist end users to adopt security best practices
Aid security engineers and developers to create robust threat models
Produce threat intelligence with salient and relevant information for defenders tailored to their organization
Help developers port code to memory safe languages

Apply now!

If you share OpenAI’s vision for a secure and innovative AI-driven future, you being invited to submit your proposals and join OpenAI in its aim towards enhancing defensive cybersecurity technologies.

OpenAI will evaluate and accept applications for funding or other support on a rolling basis. Strong preference will be given to practical applications of AI in defensive cybersecurity (tools, methods, processes). OpenAI will grant in increments of $10,000 USD from a fund of $1M USD, in the form of API credits, direct funding and/or equivalents.

Offensive-security projects will not be considered for funding at this time.

All projects should be intended to be licensed or distributed for maximal public benefit and sharing, and OpenAI will prioritize applications that have a clear plan for this.