AI Can Help Better Mitigate Cyber Threats — CIA CIO

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to help authorities tackle cyber threats in a much better way, according to La’Naia Jones, CIA’s chief information officer (CIO) and director of Information Technology Enterprise.

“We’re looking at the technology to be able to more rapidly and quickly deduce threats and give insights to protect data information and to limit those risk factors. It is about mitigation. The more technology that we can use to prevent an attack before it happens the better protected is our infrastructure,” Jones reportedly said during a Palo Alto Network webinar held on January 25.

With the help of AI, the agency aims to construct a robust framework that mitigates risks and reduces attack vectors for adversaries. Besides cybersecurity, the intelligence agency is also leveraging AI to gain a comprehensive view of data across multiple operating levels, Jones emphasized.

Last year, media reports claimed the CIA is developing a technology similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which caught the world’s attention with its ability to converse like a human and perform multiple tasks like coding and fixing a bug, among other things.

The intelligence agency's AI tool aims to enhance analysts' access to open-source intelligence. The CIA's Open-Source Enterprise division is set to deploy its AI tool, providing intelligence agencies with improved capabilities in the near future.

The agency will roll out the tool across the entire 18-agency U.S. intelligence community including the CIA, National Security Agency (NSA), and the Federal Intelligence Bureau (FBI). The tool will also be accessible to military branch-run agencies, aiding in the facilitation and streamlining of their intelligence-gathering efforts.

Previously, Lakshmi Raman, CIA’s Director for Artificial Intelligence said AI is the agency’s biggest threat, but also its biggest resource.