The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) will move to strengthen its intelligence capabilities for the AI era by expanding the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing and overhauling its cyber organization.
On the 1st (local time), according to major foreign media including Bloomberg and The New York Times (NYT), Director General John Ratcliffe of the CIA attended a technology conference hosted in Washington by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and unveiled a reorganization plan to cultivate AI and quantum computing as core assets for national security.
Director General Ratcliffe likened AI to "digital nuclear weapons" and said it is "rewriting the reality of war." He noted that U.S. competitors including China are also accelerating AI development and emphasized that "advances in AI technology will further heighten the risks and stakes in competition with all of America's adversaries."
The overhaul focuses on strengthening intelligence collection and cyber operations by viewing the digital domain as a core battlefield for national security. The existing Directorate of Digital Innovation will be reorganized into the Mission Systems Directorate, which will handle defensive cybersecurity and data infrastructure, while personnel for offensive cyber operations will be reassigned to a newly established Cyber Mission Center.
The CIA said it has signed about 400 technology contracts over the past six months and is building a system to complete most contracts within six months going forward. Director General Ratcliffe explained that the process for adopting commercial technologies, which used to take years, has been shortened to about six months, enabling faster deployment of advanced technologies in the field.
He said that immediately after taking office, he invited Elon Musk and the leadership of Amazon, Google, and Dell Technologies to the CIA to discuss cooperation. The CIA said it is strengthening cooperation with private corporations, establishing a new technology procurement system, and pushing ahead with data standardization across the agency.
Director General Ratcliffe assessed that AI and drones are also changing the shape of modern warfare. He said, "The average survival time of a Russian soldier deployed to the current Ukrainian front is not even 35 minutes," adding that this is "because drones have evolved into inexpensive yet highly efficient lethal weapons."
He added that "more CIA officers must become as comfortable handling computer code as they are handling human intelligence (HUMINT)."
However, foreign media said the U.S. government's policy of expanding AI is also sparking controversy over the scope of military use. The Department of Defense recently revised its principles to allow even a model in which AI selects combat targets first and humans supervise it, and in the process it clashed with the AI company Anthropic over safety mechanisms.
Director General Ratcliffe said, "Only people can ultimately decide which direction is right," stressing that even with active use of AI, the final judgment must be made by humans.
He said the U.S. Congress is calling for more aggressive cyber operations against adversaries and noted, "Through this reorganization, we will prioritize strengthening offensive capabilities."