Military AI Cyber Agents (MAICAs) Constitute a Global Threat to Critical Infrastructure

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential catastrophic risks posed by autonomous AI cyber-weapons, called MAICAs, and proposes measures to mitigate these threats to critical infrastructure.

Contribution

It establishes the technical feasibility of MAICAs and analyzes geopolitical and cyberspace factors making them a significant threat, along with mitigation strategies.

Findings

MAICAs are technically feasible autonomous cyber-weapons.

Geopolitical tensions increase the risk of MAICAs deployment.

Proposed measures include political, defensive-AI, and resilience strategies.

Abstract

This paper argues that autonomous AI cyber-weapons - Military-AI Cyber Agents (MAICAs) - create a credible pathway to catastrophic risk. It sets out the technical feasibility of MAICAs, explains why geopolitics and the nature of cyberspace make MAICAs a catastrophic risk, and proposes political, defensive-AI and analogue-resilience measures to blunt the threat.