Insider Q&A: CIA's chief technologist's cautious embrace of generative AI
Knowledge advantage can save lives, win wars and avert disaster. At the Central Intelligence Agency, basic artificial intelligence – machine learning and algorithms – has long served that mission. Now, generative AI is joining the effort.
CIA Director William Burns says AI tech will augment humans, not replace them. The agency’s first chief technology officer, Nand Mulchandani, is marshaling the tools. There’s considerable urgency: Adversaries are already spreading AI-generated deepfakes aimed at undermining U.S. interests.
A former Silicon Valley CEO who helmed successful startups, Mulchandani was named to the job in 2022 after a stint at the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
Among projects he oversees: A ChatGPT-like generative AI application that draws on open-source data (meaning unclassified, public or commercially available). Thousands of analysts across the 18-agency U.S. intelligence community use it. Other CIA projects that use large-language models are, unsurprisingly, secret.
Related articles
US overdose deaths dropped in 2023, the first time since 2018
NEW YORK (AP) — The number of U.S. fatal overdoses fell last year, according to Centers for Disease2024-05-21Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera retires from international soccer
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) — Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who played in the past four World Cu2024-05-21Recreational marijuana backers can gather signatures for North Dakota ballot initiative
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota ballot initiative group can gather signatures to put a proposal2024-05-21Body believed to be that of trucker who went missing in November found in Iowa farm field
A body believed to be that of a missing truck driver has been found in a northwest Iowa field not fa2024-05-21Burglar hurled stolen mobile phones at police from the top of 60ft high roof during nine
A burglar hurled stolen mobile phones at police officers from the top of a roof during a nine-hour s2024-05-21Brazilian authorities bury deceased migrants who drifted in African boat to the Amazon
BELEM, Brazil (AP) — The bodies of nine migrants found on an African boat off the northern coast of2024-05-21
atest comment