June 2023
CETaS and CSET report maps barriers to deploying reinforcement-learning cyber defence agents
A joint report from the Alan Turing Institute's CETaS and Georgetown's CSET assesses autonomous cyber defence, focusing on reinforcement learning (RL) agents trained in cyber gyms such as CAGE. It sets out technical challenges (combinatorial action spaces, reward design, transferability, securing the defender agents) and policy challenges (human-machine teaming, testing, liability), and recommends investment in gyms, test ranges, competitions and authorisation thresholds.