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
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Britain has a new sports car. But it's not like anything else you've seen on the road before.Callum,2024-05-21Muhammad Ali's 'Thrilla in Manila' trunks expected to sell for $10m
US boxer Muhammad Ali (L) hitting the head of his opponent Joe Frazier during their bout in Manila,2024-05-21Conservatives set for heavy UK election defeat to opposition Labour, survey shows
Rishi Sunak. Photo: IAN FORSYTH2024-05-21Ministry of Health job losses 'cutting really deep'
(File photo.) Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller2024-05-21Young Boys seals 6th Swiss soccer league title in 7 years after rallying from firing coach Wicky
GENEVA (AP) — Young Boys sealed its sixth Swiss league title in seven years by winning at Servette 12024-05-21Peregrine lander: Technical hitch threatens US Moon mission
By Jonathan Amos, science correspondent for the BBCThe Vulcan rocket launching from Cape Canaveral,2024-05-21
atest comment