The CIA is Building its own ChatGPT

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is building its own ChatGPT-style tool to examine public data.

In an interview with Bloomberg, CIA director Randy Nixon said America’s spy agency will create a natural language interface-style system so its analysts can better examine original source intelligence.

“We have to find the needles in the needle field,” Nixon said, “The scale of how much we collect and what we collect on has grown astronomically over the last 80-plus years, so much so that this could be daunting and at times unusable for our consumers.”

CIA staff would be able to see the original source of outputs and interact with the system by asking natural language questions.

The CIA is planning on giving access to its ChatGPT-style platform to other intelligence agencies such as the FBI and NSA via its Open Source Enterprise division.

According to Bloomberg, the move would help the CIA as it struggles to handle vast amounts of ever-increasing public data.

“Our collection can just continue to grow and grow with no limitations other than how much things cost,” Nixon said.

No word was given on the underlying model that will be used to power the CIA's own ChatGPT, or how it will protect wider data. Nixon confirmed that it would not be made available to policymakers or the public, but would follow U.S. privacy laws.

The push for AI by spy agencies comes as the U.S. Defense Department is doubling down on AI. The Pentagon has some $1.7 billion to spend on AI to improve tactical capabilities via small swarm-style autonomous systems.