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In April 2022 , the CIA decided to swipe right on Nand Mulchandani , appointing him as its first - ever chief technology officer . It was a good flavor for the CIA . Mulchandani , who antecedently served as the CTO and acting director of the Defense Department ’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center , is something of a rarefied stock in Washington . Before becoming a administration employee , he co - founded and was chief executive officer at a string of Bay Area outfits with almost comically Silicon Valley - esque names : Oblix , Determina , OpenDNS , and ScaleXtreme , each of them snapped up by a tech titan ( Oracle , VMware , Cisco , and Citrix , respectively ) .
Mulchandani could shortly be encircled by fellow founders and technologist as the Trump judicature sweep into Washington with powerful advisors like Elon Musk in tow .
We talked recently with Mulchandani about that shift and its possible impacts — and whether he hopes to be a part of it . It ’s a lounge question pass on that Mulchandani was not hand - selected by the chairman and that his boss , CIA Director William Burns , will be stepping down , interchange by John Ratcliffe , a former congressman from Texas who was President - elect Trump ’s theater director of national intelligence agency during Trump ’s first term .
The following has been cut for length .
What are the conversations happening aright now before the Trump administration come in ?
The grownup picture is that nobody is think there ’s a huge change coming in terms of technology and China . When Director Burns joined , his focus and redirection and accent for this bureau was basically on gravid power competition . The agency we like talk about it is that patently , kinetic war [ i.e. schematic combat ] and things go on in the world all the time . But the next genesis of competition is an economical contender and at the tenderness of it is technology competition . So the room he set out the strategic priorities for the agency were fundamentally a focussing on China and , again , this pivot towards technology . So launch [ two new mission centersin 2021 , one focused on China and another dedicated to transnational and technological threats ] and then the introduction of the CTO character were the big organizational change that he made . And in all silver dollar … those will probably continue priorities for any establishment coming in …
Obviously , we ’re hearing a lot about DOGE and the plans of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to shrink — or at least extend their suggestion for how to shrink — the size of government . Has anyone from Musk ’s clique speak with anyone at the CIA ? Jared Birchall , the school principal of Musk ’s family office , was reportedly talking , for example , toState Department prospect .
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I ca n’t let the cat out of the bag about specific presidential transition going on governmentwide . What I can talk about — while it ’s not quite a comment on DOGE itself but one of the fundamental themes that we have been agitate — is the applied science enablement of government and government process … and using AI and other pieces to bring precision and scale to our activity . So I ca n’t comment specifically on what they ’re trying to achieve . Is it cost ? Is it deployment of tech at exfoliation ? Our focal point is kind of all of the above … I intend , it ’d be disturbed not to actually focus on that in a big way , and we are sharpen on that , as well .
In any transition , you ’ve sire people coming in who are trying to assess what they should be prioritizing . At the CIA , what would you say these priority should be ?
There are evergreen plant job that will be there in sempiternity . One is our focusing on information insights , and I know it sounds like buzzword bingo , but AI in particular — getting that deployed [ the correct way should be a precedency ] . If we had a whiteboard , what I would draw for you is the funnel shape of data that is out there in the world and growing . As an intelligence agency , we ’re very , very data hungry , whether it be human tidings collection , electronic , geo … That ’s the core of an intelligence operation inspection and repair . The job is that the funnel and the scope and size and scale of data out there is maturate every day , and you may always see more data to hoover up and bring in in — some of it dear , some of it garbage . With that funnel just infinitely grow , we require to continuously revise our infrastructure and systems and applications …
act two [ crosstie to ] the growing side of defense tech and the idea of disruptive Silicon Valley companies now leaning into military technology and leaning into home security and serving us with products and service . That trend is an important one for us to keep supporting .
Another of the big [ link up ] initiative that we ’ve been running and that has been scaled up is : How do we dramatically take down the prevention to onboarding commercial technical school ? That ’s what we call the inward spark . The other side of it is , how do we actually cast our essential out ? So as a spy agency , as an intelligence government agency , we are culturally not tuned into talk to the outside about our job and trouble set and initiative and strategical thing ; we traditionally have been very tranquil or very cagey about this case of stuff . Obviously we have to keep our work classified , but we have now another initiative that we ’re going to be kick off in the next month or so where we ’re going to be having very direct conversations with investors , VCs , and startups [ about these needs ] … as opposed to a tactical focus on just procurement or learning or other pieces .
Speaking of VCs , what do you mean on a personal tier about people like Marc AndreessenadvisingPresident - elect Trump on hiring ? Obviously , he ’s a very fresh guy , but sometimes skill set are n’t transferable to other industry .
I ’d say that ’s out of my pay form . I signify , I know a lot of these folks , and plainly they ’re insanely smart . I ’ll give you my personal experience — and manifestly I do n’t get to advise the president directly on non - technology thing . But what stop up happening is that as a former CEO , as a businessperson , the matter that I often verbalize about in the government agency at our leaders horizontal surface is business model . My CS academic degree hopefully qualify me to talk on [ engineering ] . The other part of the experience that I bring to the table is having run these business enterprise and having made business organization determination , and my feeling is that that experience and that stand is implausibly valuable in Washington . I sometimes finger that in government , we do n’t talk often enough about business model and how to really range thing efficiently , how to descale them , how technology is wreck byplay modelling , how it can enable new business models . Many of the projects that I ’ve bring inside or been involved with , I always attempt to spread with : How is our patronage poser changing at the CIA ? As a human intelligence organization in the world of tech , in the world of AI , in the world of cracking magnate rival , in the macrocosm of hard target field for us to go on run our business , what does the CIA ’s stage business manikin look like in five , 10 , 20 age from now , and how is it changing ?
You are not a political appointment . Would you require to continue on if that ’s an option or are you quick to come back to Silicon Valley ? I sleep together you ’ve been travel between coasts the last five years .
That ’s a discussion I ’m take in with my married woman and kids almost every day . I ’m actually in the East Bay [ of San Francisco ] right now , where we live . My married woman has got her career . Our kids are well settle . We have relation close by . So I ’ve been commuting almost every week to Washington or other places that the agency , and the DOD [ before this ] , sent me or needed me . And I ’ve got to be honest with you , the mileage is now shew …
The broader effect that I call back is still a headache is there just are not enough Valley folks out in DC , and that is something that I ’m personally very worried about . When I appear around in DC , I can literally on one hand depend the number of folks who have been in positions like myself , intend [ they have ] deep roots in the Valley . It ’s a giving commitment , especially for people with kids and families .
Could you see a solar day when the CIA create a 2nd hub on the West Coast ?
For now , we ’re well - conciliate at our headquarters [ in Langley , Virginia ] . But if they ’re basically land some fresh thinking into this administration , and they desire more tech people involved , who knows ?
