Planning: Research in Generative Artificial Intelligence for Enhanced Analysis in the US Intelligence Community

Non-technical: In recent years Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly important area of research for academia, industry, and government because it has the potential to solve many important problems and thus benefit society. The goal of AI research is to create human-like abilities which can be grouped under the term “intelligence”, in computing machines.

With these abilities, machines may be able to help create better conditions for humans and may accelerate scientific discovery. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is one of the categories of AI research which is seeing intense activity, and this is because it provides anyone with an internet connection the ability to hold conversations with a GAI through web interfaces like ChatGPT.

These conversations can be about almost anything. By learning from large scale interactions, the GAIs are becoming better at providing good answers to challenging questions raised by the humans interacting with them. GAI technology such as Stable Diffusion, can render high-quality images based on written descriptions.

According to experts GAI applications will see very high levels of adoption and will impact on many areas of work and productivity. The potential of GAI is high, but experts caution that it can produce inaccurate or harmful outputs. This is a planning project between Fayetteville State University (FSU) and the Laboratory of Analytic Sciences (LAS), with FSU as the lead institution.

The project aims to work on planning to establish a research program focusing on use-inspired AI, specifically GAI, with a focus on enhancing analysis in the US Intelligence Community (IC). The project intends to bring together academia, the IC, and industry to define research thrusts, identify gaps, and develop a design and logic model which will create the foundations of a research program in this area, and will also generate at least one research proposal that will be submitted to NSF for funding.

Technical: The current state of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) and its usability in holding conversations through web interfaces like ChatGPT is rapidly changing the adoption of AI in society. The use of multi-modal generative AI, such as Stable Diffusion, to render high-quality images based on written descriptions will impact many areas of work and productivity.

The potential of GAI is high, but experts caution that it can produce inaccurate or harmful outputs. This project applications requests funding for a planning project between Fayetteville State University (FSU) and the Laboratory of Analytic Sciences (LAS), with FSU as the lead institution. The exploratory meetings of this planning project will be in-depth conversations, presentations and will create documentation describing the research needs, research problems, intellectual merit and broader impacts in the use of GAI to support the IC.

The Intellectual Merit of the proposed planning grant is that it will create the roadmap for research and the network for creating an innovation ecosystem that can sustain progress in this important area. The Broader Impacts of this project will create a plan for developing basic and applied research opportunities. As an HBCU, FSU will be able to lead and generate interest in the application of advanced research to solve problems facing the IC, in many urgent matters related to national security.

The service area of FSU includes Fort Liberty, which is the largest US Army base in the country. FSU was recently awarded the Purple Heart status in the UNC System. The broader impacts of this award will be amplified by FSU’s deep connections to the military community where this project will create plans for further development of research opportunities related to the IC which has a significant presence in the Fort Bragg community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.