dual-use
In plain wordsDescribes technology or knowledge that can be used both to help and to harm: the same AI that finds software bugs for defenders can find them for attackers.
Of a technology, capability or body of knowledge: usable for both beneficial and harmful ends, classically civilian and military, and in AI also protective and malicious. Most capabilities of general-purpose AI are dual-use — code generation and vulnerability discoveryAI-assisted vulnerability discovery, n.: Using AI to find security holes in software — and often to suggest fixes — faster than human experts alone, so that defenders, or attackers, can act on them. serve defenders and attackers, biological knowledge serves vaccine developers and would-be weapons makers, persuasive writing serves educators and propagandists — so governance rarely bans capabilities outright and instead weighs access, intent and marginal uplift. Export controls, oversight policies for 'dual-use research of concern' in the life sciences, and AI-specific rules build on the concept; US Executive Order 14110 (2023, revoked in January 2025) defined the dual-use foundation modeldual-use foundation model, n.: A US legal term for a general-purpose AI model that serves everyday uses but is capable enough that it could help someone build weapons, mount cyberattacks or evade human control..
Because the capability is dual-use, the team published the evaluation results but withheld the exploit-generation scaffold.
Origin
A long-standing term in export control and arms control for goods with civilian and military applications, extended to life-sciences research in the 2000s as 'dual-use research of concern'. The 2018 report 'The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence' helped carry it into mainstream AI policy.
Related
- dual-use foundation modeldual-use foundation model, n.: A US legal term for a general-purpose AI model that serves everyday uses but is capable enough that it could help someone build weapons, mount cyberattacks or evade human control.
- misusemisuse, n.: People deliberately using AI to cause harm — for scams, harassment, propaganda, hacking or weapons — as opposed to harm from AI making mistakes or pursuing goals of its own.
- CBRN riskCBRN risk, n.: The danger that AI could help someone make or use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons — for example, by explaining hard technical steps an attacker could not work out alone.
- AI-assisted vulnerability discoveryAI-assisted vulnerability discovery, n.: Using AI to find security holes in software — and often to suggest fixes — faster than human experts alone, so that defenders, or attackers, can act on them.
- export controls on AI chipsexport controls on AI chips, n.: Government rules that limit which countries and companies may buy the most advanced AI chips and the machines used to make them. The United States uses them mainly to slow China's progress in AI.
- structured accessstructured access, n.: Letting people use an AI system through a controlled channel, such as a website or programming interface, instead of handing over the model itself, so that the developer can limit misuse.
Sources
- Brundage, M., Avin, S. et al. (2018). The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation.
Mentioned in
dronedrone, n.: An aircraft that carries no one aboard to fly it: a person steers it from the ground, or its own software does. Small camera-carrying quadcopters are the most familiar kind., lethal autonomous weapons systemlethal autonomous weapons system, n.: A weapon that, after a person sets it going, picks out and attacks targets — including people — on its own, with no human deciding each strike. Critics call them killer robots., misusemisuse, n.: People deliberately using AI to cause harm — for scams, harassment, propaganda, hacking or weapons — as opposed to harm from AI making mistakes or pursuing goals of its own., AI-enabled cyberattackAI-enabled cyberattack, n.: A computer attack in which criminals or spies use AI to help — writing convincing scam messages, finding weak spots, producing malicious code, or even running much of the hacking by itself., biosecuritybiosecurity, n.: Protecting people from the deliberate or careless spread of dangerous germs and toxins; in AI, making sure AI tools do not make it easier to create or release biological weapons., CBRN riskCBRN risk, n.: The danger that AI could help someone make or use chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons — for example, by explaining hard technical steps an attacker could not work out alone., international humanitarian lawinternational humanitarian law, n.: The rules of international law that limit how wars may be fought, protecting civilians, the wounded and prisoners. They apply to every weapon, including ones that use AI., AI-assisted vulnerability discoveryAI-assisted vulnerability discovery, n.: Using AI to find security holes in software — and often to suggest fixes — faster than human experts alone, so that defenders, or attackers, can act on them., CERN for AICERN for AI, n.: A proposed publicly funded, international AI laboratory modeled on CERN, the European particle-physics center, where countries would pool money, computers and scientists to do AI research together., export control directiveexport control directive, n.: A US government order, used against AI models in June 2026, telling a company to stop foreigners from using some of its AI models for national-security reasons., infohazardinfohazard, n.: Information that could cause harm simply by being shared or known — for example, details that would make a dangerous weapon easier to build., Project GlasswingProject Glasswing, prop. n.: An Anthropic program, launched in 2026, that gave a hacking-capable AI model only to organizations defending important software instead of releasing it to everyone., safe completionsafe completion, n.: A way of training AI to handle sensitive requests by giving the most helpful answer that stays safe, instead of simply choosing between answering fully and refusing.