For all of human history, people have spied on one another. To find out what others are doing or planning to do, people have surveilled, monitored, and eavesdropped--using tools that constantly improved but never displaced their human masters. Artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous systems are changing all of that. In the future, machines will spy on machines in order to know what other machines are doing or are planning to do. Intelligence work will still consist of stealing and protecting secrets, but how those secrets are collected, analyzed, and disseminated will be fundamentally different.

Artificial intelligence will change the world. Because so many people and companies believe this, AI and the entire technological ecosystem in which it functions are highly valuable to private-sector organizations and nation-states. That means that nations will try to identify, steal, and corrupt or otherwise counteract the AI and related assets of others, and will use AI against each other in pursuit of their own national interests. And that presents the United States and its allies with a classic counterintelligence problem in a novel and high-stakes context: How do we protect a valuable national asset against a range of threats from hostile foreign actors, and how do we protect ourselves against the threat from AI in the hands of adversaries? In the broad and diverse discussion of artificial intelligence in the global technological and economic infrastructure of the future, this question has received remarkably little attention. In this post and others to follow, I will endeavor to explore some of the counterintelligence risks and problems presented by AI and the AI ecosystem. I'll first talk about the general problem of AI and counterintelligence and then, in later posts, dive into some of the specific areas that cause me the greatest concern in this sphere. Technological advancements often change society.