Inside the IC cover image

Inside the IC

Ethics and intelligence: Tradecraft in the age of AI

Mar 10, 2025
32:45

Cortney Weinbaum, a senior management scientist at RAND, joins the show to discuss her recent paper, “Intelligence officers have an ethical responsibility to use tradecraft.” Countless professional disciplines have a code of ethics. But such a code does not exist for the intelligence community. Weinbaum argues that intelligence officers have an ethical responsibility to use the right tools and methods -- aka “tradecraft” -- and that recent intelligence failures stemmed from bad tradecraft. Meanwhile, the increasing reliance on AI within the IC means it’s crucial that intelligence officers understand the technology they use, along with its limitations. 

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