Amidst a rapidly evolving global landscape, the proliferation of open-source intelligence (OSINT) and the trustworthiness of data sources are just a few of the priorities shaping the strategic focus of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) newest director.
Richard Muller, appointed as the director of IARPA in April, highlighted his top priorities and the challenges he has encountered thus far during an INSA Coffee & Conversation webinar on Sept. 26.
“Traditionally, the intelligence community had a few sources of intelligence, and had a pretty good idea how well they can trust those sources of intelligence,” he said. “Now we’re entering an era with all different kinds of open source intelligence, where we’ve got an almost endless collection of sources and we have no idea of how much we can trust any of these things.”
As part of his strategic vision for the agency – which he has yet to publish – Muller said he intends to deal with the intelligence community’s challenge in determining how to trust various sources and synthesize information from multiple inputs.
One solution he is considering for that challenge is the use of artificial intelligence technologies. Muller acknowledged that while AI tools are emerging as valuable resources, there’s a compelling need to make sure AI is used responsibly due to concerns about its trustworthiness.
“We’re still developing our strategic vision for the next three to five years,” Muller said. “We’re working on understanding where [our] portfolio needs to go in the future to align with current intelligence community needs.”
Muller emphasized that he is not looking to pivot away from the agency’s existing programs – such as computing, AI, biometrics, cybersecurity, and next-generation communications. Rather, he aims to build on them.
He also said that private sector and international community partnerships in support of the intelligence community’s mission sets will continue to be a driving force for the agency.
