The CIA has created digital copies of world leaders and communicates with them

One of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA’s) most important jobs is to understand the actions of world leaders. Teams of analysts process intelligence and public information to create profiles of the people who shape global policy. These profiles help predict the behavior of world leaders. Now, artificial intelligence has joined in, writes The New York Times.

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Over the past two years, the CIA has developed a tool that allows analysts to communicate with virtual versions of presidents and prime ministers who answer questions.

"This is a great example of an application that we were able to quickly implement and use quickly," said Nand Mulchandani, the CIA's chief technology officer.

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The chatbot is part of the CIA's efforts to improve tools for analysts and field operatives, and to better understand adversaries' technological advances. The main goal of these efforts is to make it easier for private companies to work with the most secretive US agency.

CIA Director William J. Burns, who has led the agency for the past four years, has made it a goal to improve its technological capabilities. The new Trump administration has said it plans to build on those initiatives, not eliminate them.

During his confirmation hearings, John Ratcliffe noted that the agency was “struggling to move quickly” as technological innovation shifted from the public to the private sector. But Ratcliffe praised Burns’s efforts and said he would expand them because “the nation that wins the race for today’s technology will dominate the world of tomorrow.”

The CIA has long used digital tools, spy gadgets, and even artificial intelligence. But the rise of new forms of AI, including the large language models that power chatbots, has prompted the agency to invest more in the field.

Burns emphasized that effective use of AI is critical to the U.S.'s ability to compete with China. He said improved AI models have helped the agency's analysts navigate the flood of open-source information.

New technologies are also used to process sensitive data. The agency has developed tools to help intelligence officers navigate cities in authoritarian countries where governments use AI-powered cameras for surveillance.

"We've made some progress," Burns said. "But we need to go faster and further."

After taking over, Burns asked Dawn Meyerrichs, who led the CIA's science and technology directorate from 2014 to 2021, to review the agency's technology efforts.

According to Meyerrichs, the CIA had long believed that it could do everything itself. The agency had to accept the idea that some of the technologies it needed were developed by the commercial sector and designed to keep information secure.

"There was really no reason why the CIA couldn't use and adapt commercial technologies," Meyerricks noted.

Under Burns, the agency created a technology center to better understand the technologies used by China and other U.S. adversaries. It hired Mulchandani as the agency’s first chief technology officer. He had previously helped found successful startups and then worked at the Pentagon on artificial intelligence. His job over the past two and a half years has been to make it easier for private companies that developed new technologies to sell their apps and tools to the CIA.

Companies looking to partner with the agency face two challenges. First, the CIA's needs are classified. How can you pitch to U.S. intelligence without knowing what they do or what they need?

Second, bureaucracy. In his office, Mulchandani unfurled a six-foot-long chart showing the approvals and steps needed to win a contract with an agency.

Each rule was put in place for a specific reason—to fix a contract problem, for example, or to correct a project’s implementation flaws. But the combined effect is a set of rules that make it harder for companies to do business with the government.

The CIA is reviewing these rules and trying to simplify them. It is seeking to work more openly with tech companies.

“The more we share information about how we use technology, how we buy it, and what we do with it, the more companies want to work with us,” said Julian Gallina, director of the CIA’s Office of Digital Innovation.

As Gallina noted, the agency has taken steps to declassify some materials to “slightly unpack” the problem it is trying to solve so that tech firms can compete for agency contracts.

The CIA has long recognized the technology problem. A quarter-century ago, it helped create In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture fund to back companies that could bring new technologies to the intelligence community. Its successes include helping grow companies like Palantir, the data analytics firm that became the foundation for Google Earth.

But the CIA wants to attract larger companies or firms backed by other venture capital funds. To that end, the agency is streamlining its bureaucracy and changing some aspects of its corporate culture.

Many CIA offices are warrens of cubicles or clusters of assistant workstations. When Nand Mulchandani first joined the CIA, he was given an office on the same floor as the agency's leadership, but he wasn't happy about it.

Mulchandani recalls an agency employee showing him around the offices asking, "What's wrong?" He replied, "Everything."

Frustrated by the small offices, lack of natural light, and storage-room-like spaces designed for the most sensitive materials, he ordered a remodel. Old offices were replaced with spaces with movable tables for meetings and idea-sharing. The goal was to create a space reminiscent of Silicon Valley offices and to show business visitors that the agency was ready for change.

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“The space will encourage a culture of communication,” Mulchandani explained. “It’s a little bit of Silicon Valley on the seventh floor.”

Whether the cultural changes will stick remains an open question. And adjusting the rules and cutting red tape will take years, not months. But Mulchandani and the agency’s outgoing leadership are optimistic.

“No one can deny that technology is the most powerful force expanding our borders today,” Mulchandani concluded. “And the work of the government, as well as our own, will be entirely dependent on technology. I cannot speak for the new leadership, but I have no doubt that this issue is high on their list of priorities.”

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