Want to join NGA? Bring AI skills, agency leader says

Splendid. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has finally discovered that computers are useful for more than solitaire. Rear Adm. Michael Baker now requires every new hire to 'prove some capability of AI and data management,' because nothing says 'spy agency' like a tick-box exercise in Python. And for the poor sods already there? Mandatory training in AI and data management — because nothing boosts morale like being told your decade of intelligence work counts for less than a weekend Coursera course.

Excellent. But can you fine-tune a transformer model? No? Next!' The implicit message is clear: the human eye is obsolete; the algorithm is ascendant. Baker's decree is a microcosm of a government running breathlessly after Silicon Valley, convinced that adding 'AI' to any process is the magic fix. Never mind that most geospatial analysis still requires contextual understanding no current model possesses.

So the NGA will spend millions retraining its workforce while likely discovering that AI tools are great at finding patterns and terrible at explaining why they matter. The new hires will have AI skills but zero domain knowledge, and the old hands will have domain knowledge but resent the enforced upskilling. A perfect recipe for an organisation that will soon be able to produce twice as many satellite images with half the insight. Progress, everyone.