AI and Information Quality with the Hon. Ellen McCarthy

Join the Intelligence Project for a discussion with Senior Fellow Ellen McCarthy, CEO of the Trust in Media Cooperative, on artificial intelligence (AI) and information quality.  In today's evolving information environment, information integrity is critical for individuals, organizations, and governments to make sound decisions. However, the speed and volume of unreliable, opaque, or misleading content overwhelms how we consume and discern quality information. This challenge is further compounded by the potential misuse and exploitation of generative AI. For instance, misleading content about political participation, one of the most important decisions we make, has gravely undermined public trust in the political process and institutions. Moreover, foreign actors have increasingly attempted to manipulate public discourse with synthetic accounts and content at scale, further threatening the integrity and security of the political process.

This seminar will take place on Wednesday, March 20th from 1:30 to 2:45PM in the Fainsod Room. This seminar is in person only and is open to Harvard ID holders. Light refreshments will be served and will be under the Chatham House Rules.

Registration link can be found here: https://forms.office.com/r/0ZpiiR5UDv 

The Intelligence Project seeks to build a new generation of intelligence practitioners prepared to serve in a rapidly changing world and to help future policymakers and intelligence consumers understand how best to interact with intelligence to gain a decision advantage. Building on multi-disciplinary research being conducted at the Belfer Center, from history to human rights and cyber technologies, the Intelligence Project links intelligence agencies with Belfer researchers, Faculty, and Kennedy School students, to enrich their education and impact public policy.

Intelligence Practice: Rapidly changing technology, epochal geopolitical shifts, and evolving conflict dynamics, will all severely challenge the work of intelligence agencies in the decades to come. Traditional threats such as terrorism, great power competition, and espionage, have been joined by new challenges posed by cyber-attack, massively scaled disinformation, and climate change. The Intelligence Project examines the intelligence methodologies, technologies, human cadres, and organizational structures, which will shape how well intelligence agencies protect nations facing these challenges. It does so through weekly term-term speaker and discussion events, which explore fundamental questions about the use and abuse of intelligence by governments— past, present, and future.

Intelligence and Policy: For many aspiring policy-makers, the first time they are exposed to the capabilities and benefits of the intelligence community in policy-making happens when they arrive at their first government job authorizing them a security clearance.  This is too late to prepare to wade through the reams of classified data, which can either illuminate or obfuscate reality depending on the ability of a reader to interpret it. The Intelligence Project acquaints students and Fellows with the intelligence community and its strengths and weaknesses for policy making.  Discussions with active and retired intelligence practitioners, scholars of intelligence history, law, and other disciplines, help students and Fellows prepare to best use the information available through intelligence agencies while avoiding the pitfalls of over-reliance on intelligence products in making policy.

Recanati-Kaplan Fellows Program:  The Intelligence Project sponsors the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation Fellows Program, which educates the next generation of thought leaders in national and international intelligence and supports their research to develop policy-relevant knowledge for the most pressing security issues.

Elbe Group: As US and Soviet forces converged in Germany in the final days of WWII, soldiers from both armies met at the River Elbe near Torgau. That historic meeting of comrades, united in the face of common threats, is the inspiration for the creation of the Elbe Group to maintain an open and continuous channel of communication on sensitive issues of US-Russian relations.  The members of the Elbe Group are senior retired military and intelligence flag officers, all of whom have strong connections back into their governments. It is an unprecedented gathering of senior veterans from the Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), Ministry of Defense, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and Department of Defense (DoD).

Research Assistant

Fellows

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INTELLIGENCE STUDY GROUP 

The Intelligence Project is now accepting applications for the Spring 2024 Study Group. 

Please submit your application by completing the application form by January 29th, 11:59pm.

The Intelligence Study Group is designed for Harvard students considering careers in government or the private sector as well as those interested in a broad introduction to intelligence. Over 10 sessions, participants study fundamentals, history, methodology, and organizations. The group uses case studies, scholarly works, and vibrant discussion to examine how intelligence enhances decision-making, supports policy, where it fails, and the differences between democracies and one-party states.

Sessions are co-convened by the Belfer Center Intelligence Project including Director Mark Pascale, Harvard Lecturer and Project Manager Dr. Michael Miner, Project Manager Dr. Maria Robson-Morrow, and Intelligence Historian Dr. Calder Walton. In addition, many sessions feature special guests from the Belfer Center Intelligence Project's core group of fellows and school visitors. Each session offers a grounding in core intelligence concepts alongside deep practitioner experience and insight on world affairs.

Participation is limited to 30 students determined by application. The study group is open to all Harvard students, faculty, fellows, and staff. No prior experience with, or knowledge of, the topic is necessary. Participation in discussion and weekly attendance is expected by successful applicants. The study group is conducted under Chatham House Rules and located on the HKS campus. 

We will meet on Wednesday afternoons from 4:30PM to 6:00PM beginning February 7 through April 24. The application will remain open until January 29 at midnight with initial decisions shortly thereafter.