Head of Cyber Directorate Warns: Iran Is Working to Develop AI-Based Cyber Weapons

The head of Israel's National Cyber Directorate, Yossi Kradi, revealed at a conference at Tel Aviv University that Iran is developing offensive AI-based cyber capabilities, parallel to the international focus on Iran's nuclear program. Kradi warned of a 'new war of attrition' in cyberspace and demonstrated the danger of combining cyber and physical robots.

The head of Israel's National Cyber Directorate, Yossi Kradi, revealed at the 'Cyber Week' conference at Tel Aviv University that Iran is working to develop offensive capabilities based on artificial intelligence (AI) in cyberspace. Kradi said that while the international community focuses on preventing an Iranian nuclear weapon, Tehran is simultaneously advancing a technological weapon no less dangerous. He described a window of time in which the attacker has an advantage over the defender, until AI is integrated into national defense. Kradi presented an American concept of a 'new war of attrition' in cyberspace, where the rate of attacks exceeding the rate of recovery creates systemic erosion. At the end of his speech, he hosted on stage a humanoid robot named 'Roberta' from the lab of Prof. Yuval Elovitz, and warned of a scenario where a single cyber attack could lead millions of robots to perform a dangerous action simultaneously.