The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Information Innovation Office is preparing to release a solicitation for a program to develop an AI Red Team concept, as well as “counter-AI techniques, tools and technical competency to operationally assess AI-enabled battlefield systems.” In support of this effort, known as “Securing AI for Battlefield Effective Robustness (SABER), DARPA is planning to host “Proposers Day” on March 12 in Arlington, Virginia, to discuss the program’s goals.
According to a SABER program description, “There is a growing desire to integrate rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into Department of Defense (DOD) systems. AI may give battlefield advantage by helping improve the speed, quality and accuracy of decision-making while enabling autonomy and assistive automation. Due to the statistical nature of machine learning, significant work has focused on ensuring the robustness of AI- enabled systems at inference time to natural degradations in performance caused by data distribution shifts (for example, from a highly dynamic deployment environment). However, as early as 2014, researchers demonstrated the ability to manipulate AI given adversary control of the input. Additional work has further confirmed the theoretical risks of data poisoning, physically constrained adversarial patches for evasion, and model-stealing attacks.”
The program description goes on to note that these types of “counter-AI attacks” have typically been conducted in “simulated or physical environments with relatively pristine control compared to what might be expected on a battlefield” and that “adversarial AI attacks have not been practically demonstrated in operational settings. As a result, the operational security risks of AI-enabled battlefield systems remain largely unknown.”
The SABER program looks to create a more realistic battlespace to stress test AI-enabled systems. This includes establishing “a sustainable model for an operational AI red teaming process for the DOD. Our AI red team will target operationally assessing AI-enabled autonomous ground and aerial systems that could be deployed within the next 1-3 years.”
More specifically, DARPA is seeking companies that can assist in “surveying, evaluating, selecting, developing, and employing state-of-the-art physical (including manufacturing/materials), adversarial AI (including digital), cyber and electronic warfare techniques and tools, or other relevant vectors for operational assessment of AI-enabled battlefield system development and deployment pipelines.”
The SABER Proposers Day can be attended in person or virtually and will include presentations from DARPA Program Manager, LTC Nathaniel Bastian, PhD and DARPA support offices. The registration deadline for the Proposers Day is Feb. 25. DARPA is expected to issue a Broad Agency Announcement soliciting proposals for the SABER program soon after the event. The DARPA Saber program can be contacted via e-mail at [email protected]. More information about the program is available at https://www.darpa.mil/research/programs/saber-securing-artificial-intelligence. – JED Staff
