Pentagon Selects Panoptic Junction Tool to Ensure Safe AI Use

The Department of Defense has selected the Panoptic Junction tool to support the Biden administration’s executive order on the safe deployment and development of artificial intelligence.

The Army Cyber Command described the new tool as “a prototype platform that, once productized, will revolutionize security monitoring of IT systems,” improving the capability to detect malicious cyber activity through continuous monitoring.

While the tool’s development timeline came before the onset of the Volt Typhoon attacks, the group behind the solution adjusted its original features to include the ability to detect Volt Typhoon-like behaviors in critical infrastructure systems, DefenseScoop reported.

The China-backed Volt Typhoon operators have been active since mid-2021 and have since infiltrated several U.S. critical infrastructure systems. 

With the growing adoption of AI and cyber capabilities and to prevent attacks led by foreign state adversaries, President Joe Biden issued the AI EO in October, instructing the secretary of defense to develop, plan, conduct and complete an operational pilot that will identify, test and evaluate AI capabilities to help the federal government detect and address vulnerabilities in its software, systems and networks.