Today is unlike the world of 1947, the year of the CIA’s founding, when members of the intelligence community had to be hunters to find hidden secrets. Instead, data now permeates our daily existence, and intelligence can be collected globally and at scale within a digital environment. The game has changed beneath our feet. We are in the middle of renewed great-power rivalry, focused on winning the race for technologies of the future—AI, quantum computing, and synthetic biology. Mastery of these technologies will shape the geopolitical order of the next century.

The world is at an inflection point for intelligence and national security. The explosion of openly available data, paired with artificial intelligence (AI) capable of processing it at scale, is not just augmenting intelligence work—it’s redefining it. Intelligence is no longer only about secrets. It’s about using data to see clearly, decide quickly, and move first in a global technology race with profound geopolitical implications.

The world is at an inflection point for intelligence and national security. The explosion of openly available data, paired with artificial intelligence (AI) capable of processing it at scale, is not just augmenting intelligence work—it’s redefining it. Intelligence is no longer only about secrets. It’s about using data to see clearly, decide quickly, and move first in a global technology race with profound geopolitical implications.

Today is unlike the world of 1947, the year of the CIA’s founding, when members of the intelligence community had to be hunters to find hidden secrets. Instead, data now permeates our daily existence, and intelligence can be collected globally and at scale within a digital environment. The game has changed beneath our feet. We are in the middle of renewed great-power rivalry, focused on winning the race for technologies of the future—AI, quantum computing, and synthetic b