MI6, CIA using generative AI to combat tech-driven enemies

CIA director Bill Burns and UK Secret Intelligence Service (SIS aka MI6) chief Richard Moore have for the first time penned a joint opinion piece in which the two spookmasters reveal their agencies have adopted generative AI.

"We are now using AI, including generative AI, to enable and improve intelligence activities – from summarization to ideation to helping identify key information in a sea of data," the pair wrote in the Financial Times.

"We are training AI to help protect and 'red team' our own operations to ensure we can still stay secret when we need to. We are using cloud technologies so our brilliant data scientists can make the most of our data, and we are partnering with the most innovative companies in the US, UK and around the world," they added.

The pair also chatted with FT editor Roula Khalaf on Saturday, and in that session Moore divulged that MI6 uses large language models to navigate the vast amount of extremist content on the internet and decipher the latest criminal vernacular so that its case officers can believably engage with that community.

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Together, the intelligence bosses pointed out that they serve at a time when technology presents unique challenges that mean the international order is "under threat in a way we haven't seen since the Cold War."

The Ukraine war has highlighted how technology, when deployed alongside traditional weaponry, "can alter the course of war," according to Moore and Burns.

The pair pronounced that the conflict has seen satellite imagery, drone technology, high and low sophistication cyber warfare, social media, open source software and intelligence, uncrewed aerial and seaborne vehicles and information operations combine at an "incredible pace and scale."

But beyond Ukraine, the CIA and SIS bosses stressed that they continue to collaborate on disrupting both Russia's disinformation campaigns and its "reckless campaign of sabotage across Europe."

Meanwhile, China represents "the principal intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the 21st century," wrote Moore and Burns.

Burns told Khalaf the CIA tripled its budget over the past three years, to address technology theft and similar security issues from China. The "China Challenge" now accounts for 20 percent of the agency's overall budget.

"We're devoting a lot of focus and I can safely predict we'll continue to do that over the next decade," asserted Burns. ®