Microsoft created a secret artificial intelligence model for US intelligence agencies that is not connected to the Internet. William Chappell, Director of Technology and Strategic Missions at the company, told Bloomberg that Microsoft has dedicated 18 months to the creation of this model, which only the United States Government can access.
Chappell told the media that the model, based on GPT-4 from OpenAI, is already operational, can answer questions, and will be able to write code. The executive also clarified that, despite being able to read and analyze files, the model cannot learn from them to prevent sensitive information from entering the platform. In addition, it still needs to be tested and accredited by intelligence agencies.
Dennis J. Gleeson, Jr, former director of strategy, wrote in an article published by the CIA in December the following: “Current chatbots are not intelligent, but they are innovative, exciting, and full of potential in the context of the volumes and varieties of information that the [intelligence community] collects, processes, classifies, and uses in support of its global mission,” and added that AI represents a “strategic shift in our thinking about interacting with massive volumes of data.”
Sheetal Patel, Deputy Director of the Transnational and Technological Missions Center at the CIA, stated last month at a security conference that many countries are competing to “introduce generative AI into intelligence data”, and added that she wants the United States to win the race.
Intelligence agencies have long wanted to use AI to manage data more efficiently. The United States National Intelligence Directorate, which acts as the head of the intelligence community, launched the AIM Initiative in 2019 to help agencies, including the CIA, process large amounts of data and “fundamentally change their way of producing intelligence”.
The CIA is even looking for an “Artificial Intelligence Specialist”, according to the employment section of its website, to help make its ambitions in this field a reality. The position involves assisting with data processing for an annual salary of up to $172,000.
