US and UK intelligence chiefs enlist generative AI in intelligence operations

In a statement on how their two agencies are working together, CIA Director Bill Burns and MI6 Director General Richard Moore explained how their agencies are using AI to combat modern threats.

In a joint op-ed published by the Financial Times, the two firms are actively using generative AI to process intelligence operations, particularly large amounts of intel.

“We are using AI, including generative AI, to enable and improve the flow of information from inference to ideation,” the intelligence chiefs wrote.

Burns and Moore highlighted the use of AI to protect their own jobs. They said that they are training the AI ​​systems to the “red team” of their activities, ensuring that they maintain the necessary confidentiality.

Intelligence chiefs paint a picture of a world in which technology is reshaping the geopolitical landscape, pointing to the war in Ukraine, where satellite imagery, drone technology, cyber warfare and information operations are coming together in unprecedented ways.

Burns and Moore said: “This conflict demonstrated that technology combined with exceptional bravery and traditional weaponry can change the course of war.”

Beyond Ukraine, the CIA and MI6 are actively cooperating to disrupt Russian disinformation campaigns and what they describe as a “reckless sabotage campaign across Europe.”

Russia's use of generative AI is growing rapidly. Last week, the DOJ seized more than 30 sites operated by Russian actors as part of a disinformation campaign that used AI to target US citizens ahead of the 2024 election.

Meanwhile, according to a recent report by the South China Morning Post, Russia is holding discussions with China on the military use of AI, including lethal weapons systems and other military applications.

China's approach to generative AI presents its own challenges. In the year According to testimony by the RAND think tank to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in February 2024, China is also expected to incorporate generative AI into cyber-enabled influence operations. Rand noted that China's military, particularly the People's Liberation Army, aims to use AI for social media manipulation and election interference.

Both MI6 and the CIA describe the rising Asian superpower as “the major intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century”. The intelligence chiefs emphasized that their agencies are not going it alone in this technological arms race and are partnering with innovative companies in the US, UK and internationally to maintain their technological edge.

While this joint revelation by Burns and Moore is important for transparency, it's important to remember that intelligence agencies have been exploring AI applications for some time.

In July, Lakshmi Raman, the CIA's director of artificial intelligence innovation, spoke at the Amazon Web Services Summit about the agency's use of generative AI for content segmentation and analytical assistance. “We're just as caught up in the generative AI zeitgeist as the whole world was a few years ago,” reports NextGov.

“We've also had a lot of success with generative AI, and we've used generative AI to help us identify and identify open-source events and then search and recognize and do natural language queries on that data,” Raman added. .

Various AI companies such as OpenAI and Palantir have been entering into agreements with various government agencies to provide AI services that enhance their capabilities.

This is a big trend. According to a report by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, federal agencies increased their potential awards for private technology contracts by nearly 1,200%, from $355 million to $4.6 billion during the study period.