Understanding the world's leaders is one of the CIA's most important jobs. A team of analysts combs through information collected by spies and publicly available information to create profiles of leaders whose behavior can be predicted.
Chatbots powered by artificial intelligence can now help with that task.
Over the past two years, the Central Intelligence Agency has developed tools that allow analysts to talk to and respond to virtual versions of foreign presidents and prime ministers.
“This is a great example of an app that was able to be quickly deployed and put into production in a cheaper and faster way,” said Nand Mulchandani, the CIA's chief technology officer.
The chatbot is part of the spy agency's efforts to improve the tools available to CIA analysts and field personnel and better understand the technological advances of its adversaries. The core of this effort is to make it easier for companies to collaborate with the most sensitive agencies.
William J. Burns, director of the CIA for the past four years, has prioritized improving the agency's technology and understanding how it is used. Incoming Trump administration officials have said they intend to build on these efforts, not dismantle them.
John Ratcliffe, President-elect Donald J. Trump's pick to head the CIA, said during his confirmation hearing that the CIA is “struggling to keep pace” as technological innovation moves from the public sector to the private sector. said. But Ratcliffe spoke positively about Burns' work, saying it would expand because “the countries that win the race with emerging technologies today will dominate the world tomorrow.”
The CIA has long used digital tools, spy equipment, and even artificial intelligence. But the agency is ramping up its investments as new forms of AI develop, including large-scale language models to power chat bots.
Burns said making better use of AI is critical to the United States' competition with China. And better AI models are helping the agency's analysts “make sense of the open source information that's out there,” he said.
The new tools also helped analysts process confidentially obtained information, Burns said. New technology developed by the agency is helping spies navigate cities in authoritarian countries where governments use AI-powered cameras to constantly monitor citizens and foreign spies.
“We're making a lot of progress,” Burns said. “But I would be the first to argue that we need to go faster and further.”
Shortly after taking the job, Burns appointed Dawn Meyerricks, who led the agency's Science and Technology Directorate from 2014 to 2021, to review the agency's efforts.
This review prompted something of a culture change. Ms. Mayerix said the CIA had long believed it could do everything on its own. The agency had to make adjustments and accept the idea that some of the technology it needed was developed by the commercial sector and designed to keep information safe.
“There was really no reason why the CIA couldn't adopt and adapt commercial technology,” Ms. Mayerix said.
Under Burns, the agency established a technology-focused mission center to better understand the technologies used by China and other adversaries. It hired Mulchandani, who helped found a series of successful startups before joining the Pentagon's Artificial Intelligence Center, as the agency's first chief technology officer.
His mission over the past two and a half years has been to make it easier for private companies that develop new technologies to sell those applications and tools to the CIA.
The challenges faced by those wishing to do business with this agency are twofold. First, categorize your needs. If you don't know what American spies are doing or need, how can you sell them anything? Second, there is bureaucracy.
At work, Mr. Mulchandani unfolded a six-foot-long chart detailing approvals and other steps for signing contracts with authorities.
Each rule is established for a reason. For example, to deal with contract issues or problems that arise with a project. But the cumulative result is a set of regulations that make it difficult for businesses to work with governments.
The CIA is reviewing and attempting to repeal these regulations. But the company is also trying to be more open with technology companies about what it needs.
“The more we share about how we adopt technology, how we source technology, and what we do with it, the more companies want to work with us and the more they want to work with us. ” said Julian Gallina, who heads the organization. CIA's Digital Innovation Directorate
Mr. Galina said he had taken steps to declassify some of the material to “slightly expose” the problems the agency is trying to overcome, allowing tech companies to compete for agency contracts.
The CIA has long recognized the technology problem. A quarter-century ago, the agency helped create In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture capital fund that helps develop companies that can provide new technology to the intelligence community. Its success includes helping companies like Palantir, a secret data analytics company, and Google Earth's predecessor, expand.
But the CIA also wants more established companies, or those backed by other venture capital, to submit their ideas to the CIA. That's where bureaucratic red tape comes in, along with efforts to change at least some of the culture of spy agencies.
Many CIA offices are crowded with cubicles or clusters of desks for assistants. When Mulchandani joined the company, he was given space on the same floor as the CIA's highest leadership, but he was not satisfied.
Mulchandani recalled that the government official leading the tour asked, “What's wrong?” He answered, “Everything.”
He disliked the small office, lack of natural light, and closet-like room for viewing his most sensitive materials. He ordered renovations. The old office has been replaced with a separate space with movable desks for meetings and exchanging ideas. The goal was to create a space reminiscent of a Silicon Valley workplace and show visiting entrepreneurs that the agency was ready for change.
“This space is going to promote culture, a culture of conversation,” Mulchandani said. “Part of Silicon Valley on the 7th floor.”
Whether cultural changes will stick is an open question. And adjusting the rules and eliminating bureaucracy is a task that will take years, not months. But there is hope for Mr Mulchandani and the outgoing agency leadership.
“No one will deny the fact that similar technologies are literally the most destructive force in the world today,” Mulchandani said. “And governments and our own jobs will be completely dependent on and disrupted by technology. I can't speak for the leaders who are about to take office, but this is their list. There is no doubt that he is the best.”
