Leaked Docs: Army Cyber Command's ECHOTRIBBLE Builds Autonomous AI Worms to Spread and Neutralize Targets

The Intercept obtained ARCYBER internal docs and a June 24 vendor PowerPoint describing ECHOTRIBBLE, a Pentagon program for AI agents that 'autonomously navigate infrastructures' with 'minimal human oversight' and 'self-directed behavior,' primarily offensive — 'disabling the threat completely or temporarily, deleting the threat from the target.' The system is designed to work against air-gapped networks and to minimize reporting back to operators. David Krueger (University of Montreal) called an autonomous AI mandate to 'neutralize threats' 'incredibly dangerous'; Abundant AI's Hyrum Anderson flagged collateral risk to civilian infrastructure.