The AI Cyber Challenge is a prestigious competition hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a research and development institute of the U.S. Department of Defense, with a total prize pool of $22.5 million.

The finals took place during DEF CON 33, a major hacking and security conference. Universities, research institutions and global tech companies from various countries participated, engaging in a fierce AI security technology competition.

Samsung participated in the competition as Team Atlanta, a joint team led by Samsung Research, the Device eXperience (DX) Division’s advanced research institute, in collaboration with security experts from leading global universities, including the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH).

The competition, which spanned two years starting from 2023, saw forty-two teams compete in the semifinals last year, with only seven advancing to this year’s finals.

“Samsung Electronics was able to achieve meaningful results by demonstrating its AI-based security technology capabilities at a global security technology competition,” said Taesoo Kim, VP of Samsung Research, who led Team Atlanta. “We will continue to expand collaboration with global security experts to further advance Samsung Electronics’ security technology proficiency.”

Team Atlanta advanced to the finals with exceptional technical capabilities, being the sole participant to detect an unintended vulnerability — not a flaw that had been set up for the competition — in the semifinals, and once again proved world-class security technology capabilities in the finals.

The finals evaluated each team’s ability to analyze source code vulnerabilities and apply security patches using AI-powered security technologies alone, without any human intervention.

By showcasing leading expertise with precise and sophisticated AI security technology, Team Atlanta earned the honor of first place and received $4 million in prize.

Building on its achievement, Samsung plans to develop next-generation security solutions powered by AI that can autonomously identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities, enabling continuous enhancement of products and service security.