Category: United States Director of National Intelligence

Source: United States Director of National Intelligence

Headline: ODNI, DHS, FBI To Lead National-level Classified Dialogue for State Election Officials

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 9-18
February 15, 2018

ODNI, DHS, FBI To Lead National-level Classified Dialogue for
State Election Officials

On February 16 and February 18, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), together with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), will sponsor a classified briefing for election officials from all 50 states. This national-level classified dialogue with officials from the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED), and the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is part of an ongoing effort to ensure the integrity and security of the nation’s election infrastructure, particularly as the risk environment evolves. The briefings will focus on increasing awareness of foreign adversary intent and capabilities against the states’ election infrastructure, as well as a discussion of threat mitigation efforts. The goal of this collaborative event is to build an enduring partnership to ensure the sharing of timely, substantive information on threats to our nation’s critical infrastructure.

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Source: United States Director of National Intelligence

Headline: IARPA Launches “CORE3D” Program to Build Accurate 3-D Models from Satellite Imagery

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 8-18
February 12, 2018

IARPA Launches “CORE3D” Program to Build Accurate 3-D Models from Satellite Imagery

WASHINGTON – The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, announces today that it has established a multi-year research plan to build 3-D models that leverage satellite imagery in order to support our nation’s military, humanitarian and intelligence missions. The Creation of Operationally Realistic 3-D Environment —“CORE3D”—program will revolutionize the way we build 3-D models by cutting down the amount of time it takes to build them to a fraction of the time, compared to current methods.

“Automated methods lag behind manual approaches for creating 3-D models with respect to extracting mission relevant information and understanding scenes,” said CORE3D program manager Hakjae Kim. “While manually constructed models are accurate and reliable, the process to create them is time-consuming and does not satisfy the need for models to support rapid response to military or humanitarian crises in areas where up-to-date models do not exist.”

The CORE3D program aims to develop rapid automated systems for 3-D models which are designed with complex physical properties and automated methods that will pull commercial, satellite, and airborne imagery.

Through a competitive Broad Agency Announcement, IARPA has awarded research contracts in support of the CORE3D program to teams led by Applied Research Associates, General Electric, Kitware and Vision Systems, Inc.

IARPA invests in high-risk, high-payoff research programs to tackle some of the most difficult challenges of the agencies and disciplines in the Intelligence Community. Additional information on IARPA and its research may be found on  www.iarpa.gov.

Source: United States Director of National Intelligence

Headline: ODNI & OUSDI Announce Winners of “Xpress” Analytic Product Generation Challenge

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 07-18
February 5, 2018

ODNI & OUSDI Announce Winners of
“Xpress” Analytic Product Generation Challenge

WASHINGTON – The Office of the Director of Science and Technology (DS&T) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)—in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSD[I])— announced today the winners of its first public challenge contest, “Xpress,” to explore artificial intelligence (AI) approaches with the potential to transform the process by which analysts currently support policymakers and warfighters through the research and generation of written products.

The Xpress Challenge sought to stimulate the development of innovative algorithms to craft analytic products that identified the national security implications of a representative intelligence question using a defined body of press reporting. Submissions were evaluated based on the quality of the report generated by the solvers’ algorithms as well as the solutions’ extensibility to additional, related questions. The prize categories awarded comprised:

• Literal — Ability to craft sound written material in response to the posed intelligence question ($50,000),

• Inferential — Ability to discern and characterize how the offered reasons (direct evidence, assumptions, precedents, or logical inferences) support analytic judgements and conclusions ($50,000),

• Evaluative — Ability to make reasoned assertions and incorporate alternative analysis ($50,000), and

• Creativity — Content, design, technological innovation, and the unique nature of the underlying idea ($50,000).

Ultimately, 387 teams from 42 countries registered for the Xpress Challenge, with 13 teams submitting solutions that were responsive to the challenge. Those teams receiving Xpress Challenge awards included:

• The top-performing submission, developed by Simon Cazals, was an extensible solution that won $150,000 by capturing Xpress’ Literal, Inferential, and Evaluative prizes.

• A second submission, led by Thomas Vreeland of the Vreeland Institute of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Creativity prize for the solution’s approach for self-evaluating its machine-generated responses.

“As a means for exploring how well algorithms are currently able to inform policymakers and warfighters, we are thrilled with the opportunities for mission impact that these techniques begin to open up for the Community,” said Dr. David Isaacson, DS&T program manager for the challenge. “Although trained IC analysts’ products still exceed the quality of the reports generated by these solutions, Cazals’ approach generated its responses in about 10 seconds using commodity hardware. Ultimately, such AI-enabled approaches may afford decision-makers a parallel intelligence production model that allows them to rapidly determine if such a machine-generated output is ‘good enough’ for their pressing information needs.”

The ODNI and the OUSD(I) are grateful to all those who submitted potential solutions to this critical intelligence problem, as well as to the Air Force Research Laboratory and AFCEA International for their support in executing the Xpress Challenge. Through public challenges such as Xpress, the ODNI and the OUSD(I) are advancing the IC’s mission of stimulating technology-based capabilities for solving intelligence challenges today and in the future.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the IC to break new ground in how we inform policymakers or enable the warfighter in the field. It just doesn’t get any better than that.” said Sue Gordon, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. “I am excited these incredible minds came together from all around the globe to develop artificial intelligence methods to solve the critical intelligence problems we face today and in the future.”

Source: United States Director of National Intelligence

Headline: DNI Coats Directs Intelligence Agencies To Review Tet Offensive-related Documents for Declassification, Release

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ODNI News Release No. 6-18 
January 31, 2018

DNI Coats Directs Intelligence Agencies
To Review Tet Offensive-related Documents
for Declassification, Release

First in Series of Releases Expected in July, New Transparency Effort To Share Historical Information of Current Relevance

In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive—which took place on January 30, 1968—Director of National Intelligence Daniel R. Coats directed intelligence agencies to review their holdings to reveal previously classified details to the public.

In December 2016, former DNI James R. Clapper instructed the Intelligence Community Senior Historians Panel to identify topics of historical interest for declassification and release, as a part of the IC’s continuing efforts to enhance public understanding of IC activities.

For the first release of this initiative, the panel recommended documents relating to the Tet Offensive be reviewed for declassification and release in commemoration of the Vietnam War.

The Tet Offensive

The Tet Offensive was a series of surprise attacks launched by the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong on January 30,1968 throughout South Vietnam that targeted multiple prominent sites, including the Presidential Palace and the U.S. Embassy in Saigon.

While the attacks initially took the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces by surprise, they eventually recovered to repel the Viet Cong.  The dramatic nature of the Tet Offensive began to turn U.S. public opinion against the war and precipitated the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam.

Review & Declassification

Based on the recommendation of the Historians Panel, DNI Coats has directed that IC elements review their record holdings to identify classified records pertaining to the Tet Offensive and review them for declassification and release.

The declassified documents will be released over a period of 15 months, in three installments, beginning in July 2018. Subsequent releases will take place in January 2019 and April 2019.

How to Learn More

Intelligence.gov will serve as the hub for information on the progress of the Tet Offensive document declassification throughout the process and will provide access to materials sourced from across the IC upon their release. Efforts to declassify historical information of current relevance are rooted in the 2015 transparency implementation plan that led to semi-annual meetings of the IC Historian Panel.  Follow @inteldotgov #TetDeclassified for updates.

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