CIA deploys AI to write intelligence reports, plans AI coworkers for analysts within years

The CIA Let AI Write Its First Intelligence Report -- And AI 'Coworkers' Are Up Next - Decrypt

The disclosure came as the CIA distanced itself from Anthropic, whose tools the Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to phase out. The CIA recently used AI to generate an intelligence report without a human analyst driving it. Deputy Director Michael Ellis confirmed the milestone Thursday at a Special Competitive Studies Project event, marking a shift from quiet experimentation to a public declaration of ambition. Ellis said the agency ran more than 300 AI projects last year, Politico reports. Somewhere in that stack, a machine produced an intelligence product entirely on its own -- a first in the agency's history. The near-term roadmap is more incremental. Analysts would get AI "coworkers" embedded in agency analytics platforms to handle drafting, editing for clarity, and benchmarking outputs against tradecraft standards. Humans would still ultimately sign-off on the results. But the goal is speed -- getting intelligence products out faster than a human-only pipeline allows. Within a decade, Ellis said, CIA officers will manage teams of AI agents operating as "autonomous mission partners," a hybrid model that scales intelligence gathering in ways no human workforce can match alone. The CIA has been building toward this for years. In 2023, the intelligence agency announced its own AI chatbot to help staffers parse surveillance data. By 2024, CIA Director Bill Burns and MI6 Chief Richard Moore jointly disclosed they were actively using generative AI for content triage, analyst support, and tracking how foreign adversaries deploy the technology. Ellis' remarks push that public timeline forward considerably. Earlier this year, Anthropic declined to relax restrictions barring its tools from domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons applications. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded by designating Anthropic's products a "supply chain risk." President Trump then ordered every federal agency to phase out Anthropic tools. The company has legally challenged the move. Ellis didn't name Anthropic, but the message landed clearly. The CIA "cannot allow the whims of a single company" to constrain its use of AI, he said, and the agency is actively diversifying across vendors to stay operationally flexible. Ellis also flagged that the CIA doubled its technology-focused foreign intelligence reporting, tracking how adversaries like China are deploying AI across semiconductors, cloud computing, and R&D. The agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence was elevated to a full mission center -- a move Ellis described as critical, given that "the battle of cybersecurity will be a battle of artificial intelligence."

CIA to Bring in AI Co-workers to Help Catch Spies

The US Central Intelligence Agency said it will embed "AI co-workers" directly into its analytics platforms to assist analysts with detecting spies and anticipating hostile moves by foreign adversaries. "Within the next couple of years, we will have AI co-workers built into all of the agency's analytic platforms -- a kind of classified version of generative AI that will help our analysts with basic tasks," CIA deputy director Michael Ellis reportedly said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington, DC. According to Politico, Ellis said the AI co-workers would assist intelligence officers with drafting key judgments, testing analytical conclusions and identifying trends in intelligence that the agency gathers from abroad. However, he said humans would continue to be the ones making the "key decisions." The CIA's AI plans come amid a feud between the US Department of Defense and AI firm Anthropic. Despite having a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense, Anthropic prevented the use of its flagship AI product, Claude, for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. US President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic's technology in March, while the Department of Defense declared Anthropic a supply chain risk. The parties remain locked in a legal dispute over the designation, with a US appeals court on Wednesday denying Anthropic's emergency request to temporarily pause the label. While Ellis didn't point out Anthropic, he said the CIA "cannot allow the whims of a single company" to constrain its capabilities. The CIA has already adopted AI for other intelligence tasks, having tested about 300 AI projects last year to "bring new capabilities to our mission," such as processing large data sets and language translation, Ellis said. Ellis also noted that the CIA recently created its first intelligence report with AI while predicting that AI's role in the agency's work would continue to grow. Related: North Korean cyber spies are no longer just remote threats A major motivation for the CIA is to stay ahead of China, Ellis said, noting that the once-large gap between the US and China has narrowed significantly. "Five to ten years ago, China was nowhere near America, in terms of technological innovation," Ellis said. "That's just not true today." In May, Ellis said Bitcoin and crypto were matters of national security, adding that the agency looks at blockchain data to assist with its counterintelligence operations. "It's another area of technological competition where we need to make sure the United States is well positioned against China and other adversaries."