Sentient (intelligence analysis system)

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Sentient is an automated (artificial intelligence) intelligence analysis system under development by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) of the United States federal government. [1] [2] A principle purpose of the Sentient system is described by the NRO as compiling at machine, versus human speed, synthesis of complex distributed data sources for rapid analysis faster than humans can manage. [3]

Official NRO documents from 2012, declassified in 2019, describe it as "an on-going Research and Development (R&D) program, which is managed and operates out of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)". [2] NRO documents detail the Sentient program was in some form of initial development from 2013 through 2016. [4] Another NRO document also released in 2019 detailed that stakeholders involved in Sentient include the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. [5]

The program architecture was developed to demonstrate advanced technologies and techniques to revolutionize the current Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (TCPED) cycle across the Intelligence Community (IC). [2] The Sentient methodology represents a fully integrated intelligence approach consisting of three fundamentals: problem-centric intelligence multi-INT end-to-end and trusted machine automation. [1]

Summaries and descriptions of Sentient

Betty J. Sapp, former Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, described the Sentient program to the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces as: [6]

"Our Sentient program--a 'thinking' system that allows automated, multi-intelligence tipping and cueing at machine speeds-has been focused against many of our most challenging mission sets, resulting in new intelligence information that human-in-the-loop systems would have missed. Our Future Ground Architecture will leverage Sentient, and create an integrated cloud-based enterprise that will share tasking and intelligence products quickly across each of our ground sites, increasing both performance and resilience. [6]

According to Robert Cardillo, former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the system is intended to use "automated inferencing" to aid intelligence collection. [7] Cardillo summarized Sentient in 2017 as: [7]

"The Sentient program is a research and development effort, conducted jointly with NRO, to experiment with automation that ingests data, makes sense of it in the context of an intelligence problem, and then infers likely future intelligence and collection needs... The approach is to continue to introduce automation in the processing arena that will support automated inferencing, and therefore, faster tasking for future collections." [7]

The National Reconnaissance Office lists among the advantages and challenges of Sentient as: [5]

"Sentient's activity-based collection provides significant advantages over schedule-driven collection. Sentient tradecraft and culture must also be acknowledged as being significantly different from the norm by the IC in that it is shifting toward activity-based collection versus being primarily schedule driven." [5]

The Verge described Sentient as “an omnivorous analysis tool, capable of devouring data of all sorts, making sense of the past and present, anticipating the future, and pointing satellites toward what it determines will be the most interesting parts of that future.” [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Scoles, Sarah (2019-07-31). "Meet the US's spy system of the future — it's Sentient". The Verge . Archived from the original on 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sentient Program" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office, Federal government of the United States . 2012-02-13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-08-08. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  3. ↑ "SENTIENT Challenge Themes" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office, Federal government of the United States . 2019-02-09. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  4. ↑ "Sentient Overview 2017" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office, Federal government of the United States . 2012-02-13. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  5. 1 2 3 "NRO Campaign Plan For Sentient" (PDF). National Reconnaissance Office, Federal government of the United States . 2019-02-19. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-20. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  6. 1 2 Sapp, Betty (2017-05-09). "Director National Reconnaissance Office, Statement for the Record" (PDF). Betty J. Sapp on the United States House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces archives. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  7. 1 2 3 Cardillo, Robert (2017-03-16). "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love our Crowded Skies". The Cipher Brief. Archived from the original on 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
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