--- title: "The CIA Is Quietly Using AI to Build Emulated Versions of World Leaders" description: "The CIA has been stepping up its efforts to keep up with AI advances — and has developed a particularly spy-tastic way of using chatbots." date: "2025-01-21" modified: "2025-01-21" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/cia-ai-chatbots-leaders" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "chatbots" - "cia" - "the digest" --- # The CIA Is Quietly Using AI to Build Emulated Versions of World Leaders ![The CIA has been stepping up its efforts to keep up with AI advances — and has developed a particularly spy-tastic way of using chatbots.]() *VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA - APRIL 25: (RUSSIA OUT) North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 25, 2019 in Vladivostok, Russia. Russian President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met on the Pacific port city of Vladivostok on Thursday during their first ever summit. Reports have indicated that Pyongyang's nuclear programme will be at the top of the list of issues to discuss as the meeting between both leaders came soon after a failed summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi, which ended without an agreement made. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images) \Image: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images\* ## Spy Family The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been stepping up its efforts in the world of AI — including an eyebrow-raising use of chatbot tech. As the [*New York Times*]()[ reports](), the CIA has been quietly developing a platform that lets analysts "talk" to foreign leaders, in a bid to predict how they might react in certain situations. The human variety of this type of behavior-predicting analysis has been the bread and butter of the agency's behind-the-scenes grunts for a very long time. Instead of painstakingly compiling "profiles" on world leaders based on public information and gathered intelligence, however, those analysts will engage in faux conversation with large language models (LLMs) trained on similar intelligence and information that's presumably being fed into its training data. The *NYT* didn't say how formally the chatbot has been deployed, or who helped develop it. However, an interview with the CIA's first chief technology officer, ex-Pentagon AI czar Nand Mulchandani, reveals that its opacity is very much by design. Mulchadani, a Silicon Valley veteran, has a chart in his offices showing all the layers of approval it takes to get any private sector collaboration approved within the secretive agency. From handing issues with contracts to taking care of any project roadblocks, each step requires an incredible amount of bureaucracy and clandestine discussion — hurdles that the CIA acknowledges are hindering its quest to keep up with innovation and China, America's main tech adversary. ## Training Day The agency's now-CTO was, as the *NYT* notes, hired to help spearhead a forward-thinking sea change within the CIA. In the two-and-a-half years since he was brought on, Mulchadani has apparently made it easier for private companies to start working with the intelligence agency — and reading between the lines, it seems he's held the hands of tech CEOs through the labyrinthine bureaucracy. "The more we share about how we employ technology, how we procure technology, what we’re going to do with it, will make companies want to work with us and want to team with us more," explained Juliane Gallina, the deputy director of the CIA's digital innovation arm, in an interview with the *NYT.* According to Gallina, the agency is looking to declassify and "expose a little bit" of its secret technological sauce to help procure private sector contracts. There was no mention, however, of whether the public will be given a look behind the curtain of what their tax dollars are helping to fund. **More on spies:** [*Hackers Apparently Stole the FBI's Call Logs With Confidential Informants*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()