AEGIS — A Framework for Collective, Distributed, and Accountable Cyber Defense in the Age of Autonomous AI Vulnerability Discovery

Anthropic just proved that AI capabilities are advancing faster than our ability to govern them — Claude Mythos was too dangerous to release, but who made that call and what happens next? This working paper tackles the elephant in the room: we need AI systems defending us from AI systems, but nobody wants to talk about who controls the defenders. The AEGIS framework proposes something radical — a collectively governed AI defense system that operates independently to protect critical infrastructure, with multi-stakeholder oversight instead of corporate or government control. Think of it as an immune system for the internet, but one that's accountable to everyone it protects. The technical architecture is fascinating — AI defenders constrained by design, operating transparently, with built-in accountability mechanisms. But the real breakthrough is the governance model: infrastructure operators, security researchers, civil society, and yes, even governments, all having a say in how these systems operate. It's the first serious attempt I've seen to solve the 'who watches the watchers' problem for defensive AI.