Researchers from University College London and the University of Sydney have developed an AI agent called A1 capable of autonomously identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in smart contracts. These contracts, fundamental to decentralized finance, often contain bugs that can be exploited for financial gain. In the past year, the cryptocurrency sector lost $1.5 billion due to hacks, with $11.74 billion stolen since 2017. A1 utilizes AI models to understand contract behavior, generates exploits in Solidity, and tests them against historical blockchain states to uncover financial targets.
Researchers from UCL and USYD created an AI agent named A1 that can autonomously discover and exploit vulnerabilities in smart contracts on blockchains, which are foundational for decentralized finance.
Cryptocurrency platforms lost nearly $1.5 billion due to hacking attacks last year, and since 2017, about $11.74 billion has been stolen from DeFi systems, highlighting the potential profitability of exploiting smart contract flaws.
The A1 system employs AI models from major tech companies to identify vulnerabilities in Solidity smart contracts. It tests generated exploits by analyzing historical blockchain data.
While AI can pinpoint vulnerabilities, it also frequently creates false flaws, causing the banning of AI-generated vulnerability reports in open-source projects; however, A1 targets specific contracts to optimize its accuracy.
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