Major tech companies call for defensive surge to defeat AI-driven hacks

‌Major tech ​companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon are calling for a society-wide defensive surge to defeat what they describe as ‌an impending wave of hacks driven by artificial intelligence. In a joint letter issued Thursday, the companies — along with more than 100 others including Broadcom, Capital One , Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, General Motors, IBM, ‌Mastercard, Oracle, Robinhood, Shopify and Visa — said there was a limited amount of time "to make ‌our digital world much more secure" ahead of the AI threat. "In the coming months, AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread as models around the world become increasingly capable," the letter said. It called on ⁠government and industry ​leaders "to bring the ⁠full weight of their technology, resources, and expertise to this effort."

It called on governments to expedite trusted ⁠access programs, which give certain companies access to more powerful models ahead of the general public, and ​for all other organizations to "make cyber defense an immediate leadership priority." The U.S. cyberdefense agency CISA ⁠and the White House did not immediately return a message seeking comment. President Donald Trump's administration imposed deep ⁠cuts ​on CISA when it took office and the agency's staffing fell by about a third last year. Meanwhile fears that advances in AI will supercharge hacking campaigns are being realized ⁠as rogue elements increasingly deploy large language models to break into organizations around the world. In ⁠June, the world's "Five ⁠Eyes" intelligence alliance — composed of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — issued a rare joint statement warning that the AI revolution ‌was poised ‌to "fundamentally transform" cybersecurity.