OpenAI is giving Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation access to Daybreak, an AI tool that finds software flaws, tests whether they can be exploited and checks whether fixes work. The offer was announced Wednesday alongside the UN General Assembly.
OpenAI pledged $1 billion in subsidized Daybreak access for resource-strapped defenders worldwide on Sept. 3, saying it would expand the program to “partner countries” within weeks. Cyber agencies in France, Germany and Poland already have access to OpenAI models; Poland’s CERT used the tool to find six flaws in commercial router software, all later patched by the vendor.
OpenAI’s usage policy banned military and warfare activity until the company removed that prohibition on Jan. 10, 2024. Days later at Davos, CEO Sam Altman and the company’s VP of global affairs said OpenAI was already building cybersecurity tools with the Pentagon. Jamie MacColl, a cyber researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that Western firms also gain valuable intelligence from an active war zone.
