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 agency projects: A ChatGPT-like generative AI application that draws on opensource 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.

This interview with Mulchandani has been edited for length and clarity.

YOU RECENTLY SAID GENERATIVE AI SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE A “CRAZY, DRUNK FRIEND.” CAN YOU ELABORATE?