America’s most secretive spy agency opens its archive in explosive new podcast – and warns of major China threat [Video]

12:47 EDT 05 Oct 2024, updated 12:47 EDT 05 Oct 2024

Spies are supposed to be tight-lipped about their craft, but that’s changing at the National Security Agency (NSA) after seven decades of cloak-and-dagger secrecy.

The agency — once known as the Black Chamber — has launched a podcast, and it’s shaking up the world of intelligence gathering, while also issuing a warning about China’s AI capabilities.

Already, NSA podcasters have opened up their archives about the hunt for terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and laid bare the pervasive threat from Russian hackers.

But the most revealing episode so far has lifted the lid on artificial intelligence, or AI, and the arms race for data supremacy between the United States and China.

Beijing is ‘very focused on investing in AI to gain that economic, diplomatic, political and military advantage,’ says Vinh Nguyen, the agency’s AI chief, in episode three.