DARPA wants AI to find hidden flaws in digital markets that adversaries could exploit to wreak economic havoc

ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images US defense and security agencies, as well as federal regulators, have to combat hacks and data theft. Another challenge is bad actors who exploit gaps in the rules governing key systems, like electronic markets. DARPA hopes to close those.

The Pentagon's research arm is seeking new artificial intelligence tools that can uncover hidden flaws in the rules governing US financial and other digital markets and fix them before adversaries can exploit them to cause economic chaos.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 's new Intrinsic Market Resilience program is aimed at protecting electronic markets tied to everything from stocks and bonds to energy and cloud-computing resources.

Those critical systems have become faster and more efficient, DARPA says, but their increasingly interconnected nature has also created new avenues for disruption.

"I think that…