The Pentagon, which is affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense, has seen a tenfold increase in cybersecurity vulnerabilities, Lt. Gen. Paul Stanton said. Stanton said the surge had occurred alongside the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence technology.
Stanton, the director of the Pentagon’s Defense Information Systems Agency and the Department of Defense’s cyber defense commander, said the sustainability and maintenance of systems had been deferred in ways that could create potential threats. “Enough is enough,” he said.
The failure to allocate the budget needed to strengthen the Pentagon’s digital infrastructure in time was alleged to pose a national security risk. The digital infrastructure was assessed to have become highly vulnerable to extremely destructive cyberattacks, while cyberattacks enabled by artificial intelligence were also alleged to pose an urgent and serious threat to the U.S. national security structure.
Stanton’s remarks came after Jacob Coxon, a researcher at artificial intelligence company Anthropic, resigned. Coxon stepped down after warning that artificial intelligence technology could kill everyone by the end of the next decade.
In the United States, executives from three major artificial intelligence companies, including Anthropic, have recently called for limits on the pace of the technology’s development.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance said they did not find those statements sincere. Trump and Vance argued that artificial intelligence research should continue without slowing down and that the United States should not fall behind China in the competition.