The CIA and various other U.S. intelligence agencies are gearing up to deploy an AI chatbot akin to ChatGPT.

This program, unveiled by Bloomberg on Tuesday, will undergo training using publicly accessible data and will furnish sources alongside its responses, allowing agents to verify their accuracy.

The objective is to facilitate the task of U.S. intelligence operatives in navigating the continuously expanding volumes of information, although the precise definition of “public data” may give rise to privacy concerns.

“We’ve gone from newspapers and radio, to newspapers and television, to newspapers and cable television, to basic internet, to big data, and it just keeps going,” Randy Nixon, the CIA’s director of Open Source Enterprise, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We have to find the needles in the needle field.” Nixon’s division plans to distribute the AI tool to US intelligence agencies “soon.”

Nixon explains that this tool will empower agents to conduct information searches, pose follow-up inquiries, and condense vast volumes of data, Engadget reported.

He elaborated, saying, “Then you can take it to the next level and start chatting and asking questions of the machines to give you answers, also sourced,” he said. “Our collection can just continue to grow and grow with no limitations other than how much things cost.”

The CIA has not specified which AI tool serves as the foundation for its chatbot. Once the tool becomes available, it will be accessible to the entire U.S. intelligence community, comprising 18 agencies.

However, it will not be accessible to lawmakers or the general public.

Nixon assured that the tool would adhere to U.S. privacy laws.

Nevertheless, he did not detail the government’s strategy for preventing it from potentially leaking onto the internet or utilizing information obtained through questionable means yet technically classified as “public.”

Federal agencies, including the Secret Service, and law enforcement agencies have been known to circumvent warrants and procure extensive datasets from commercial platforms.

These datasets have encompassed information such as phone locations, which the government may classify as open-source data.

Written by staff