Artificial Intelligence

Discussion Prompt: Will AI solve the “information overload“ challenge for intelligence agencies?

In a 1993 white paper, the US Scientific and Technical Intelligence Committee (STIC) spelled out the need for analytical “paradigm shifts” to cope with the rapidly expanding “global production of information”, widely dubbed ‘the information overload’. 25 years later, self-learning algorithms, commonly referred to as Artificial Intelligence, ⁠are often heralded as that very technological revolution, suited to provide for either a “new kind of security” or a new age of government surveillance, or both. Against this backdrop, we try to understand the current and projected role of artificial intelligence in the work of intelligence agencies. Is it the technological breakthrough agencies have been seeking? Has it propelled us into a new intelligence governance dimension, where we require specific and updated regulation and control? Or is it a continuation of technology support systems which simply aid decision makers?

AI and national security: learn from the machine, but don’t let it take decisions

How intelligence agencies can use AI in an effective and accountable way.

by Marion OswaldVC Senior Fellow, Northumbria Law School

Marion Oswald is Vice-Chancellor's Senior Fellow in Law at the University of Northumbria, an Associate Fellow of RUSI and a solicitor (non-practising). She is Chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner and West Midlands Police data ethics committee, a member of the National Statistician’s Data Ethics Advisory Committee, a member of the Advisory Board to the Ada Lovelace Institute Ryder Review of the Governance of Biometric Technologies, and an executive member of the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association.

Another layer of opacity: how spies use AI and why we should talk about it

Thanks to the AI hype, for perhaps the first time ever, the wider public might get to monitor and address technological & operational transformation in Signals Intelligence as it unfolds.

by Ronja KniepWZB Berlin Social Science Center

Ronja Kniep is a research fellow in the research group ‘Politics of Digitalisation’ at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and a PhD candidate at the Freie Universität Berlin (FU). Her research focuses on communications surveillance, intelligence cooperation, intelligence oversight, and digital policy. In the research project “Intelligence Oversight and intelligence networks: Who guards the Guardians?” (GUARD//INT), Ronja works on an intelligence oversight index, oversight of information sharing, and analyses the justification and contestation of surveillance in German cases of strategic litigation.

Predictive policing: positivism is not enough to rule our complex world

The key concern with artificial intelligence is not (only) its potency but its inability to seek justice.

by Oskar J. GstreinUniversity of Groningen – Campus Fryslân

Dr. Oskar Josef Gstrein is Assistant Professor at Campus Fryslân - University of Groningen, where he is also a member of the Data Research Centre. He collaborates in the EU Horizon 2020 project Cutting Crime Impact and teaches in the graduate program 'Governance and Law in Digital Society' as well as the minor 'Data Wise'. At the same time, he is external lecturer at the Europa-Institut of the University of Saarland in Germany.

Augmentation as artifice: a Palantir look at AI

How the big data analytics company focuses on supporting rather than displacing human decision-making.

by Paula KiftPrivacy & Civil Liberties Engineer, Palantir

Paula is a Privacy and Civil Liberties Engineer at Palantir Technologies where she leads customer engagements on the technical implementation of EU data protection law. She advises public and private sector clients, including automotive, aerospace, drug development, health insurance, media, telecommunications, customs, and law enforcement. Paula holds a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in French, European Cultural Studies and Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and a Master of Arts in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University. She is a certified Data Protection Officer under the German Association for Data Protection and Data Security.

GCHQ embraces AI, but not as a black box

AI can augment human creativity and help keep societies safe, but only if issues of bias and transparency are adequately addressed.

by Jo Cavan & Paul KillworthDirector Strategy, Policy and Engagement & Deputy Director Strategic Policy, GCHQ

Jo Cavan is Director Strategy, Policy and Engagement at GCHQ, and Paul Killworth is Deputy Director Strategic Policy at GCHQ.