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The CIA is headed back to the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Texas with an emphasis on recruiting employees, building new tech partnerships and outreach to children.
The annual SXSW conference and festival is underway on Friday and serves as a major attraction to Austin, Texas, for people working in tech, entertainment, the arts and other creative industries.
The CIA said its officers will be at the SXSW Creative Industries Expo starting on Sunday and will be eager to discuss opportunities for people to partner with the CIA in the STEAM areas of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.
“In addition to discussing current career opportunities, we will also highlight how CIA is developing talent in STEAM fields from kindergarten to graduate school to meet future national security workforce needs,” the agency said in a statement. “Hands-on demonstrations of virtual reality glasses and the Looking Glass — a commercially available 3D holographic display — will show visitors examples of how CIA uses technology to accomplish its mission.”
The CIA’s work with children will raise some eyebrows, but it comes as word has spread that the agency is facing challenges assimilating young Americans into its ranks amid the demanding nature of its work.
Former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos has said he is worried that the intergenerational conflict between old and young is affecting the CIA’s job.
“At this rate, according to my peers, one would not be surprised if the young officers unionized, with work stoppages and demands for better working conditions becoming more important than stealing secrets and penetrating terrorist networks,” Mr. Polymeropoulos wrote for the Cipher Brief website in January.
While the agency has worked to smooth out the generational divide, CIA has become a fixture at the SXSW gathering in recent years.
For example, actor Ben McKenzie has said his journey into the cryptocurrency industry got a boost from visiting SXSW in 2022 where he “got drunk with CIA bros,” according to an excerpt in Rolling Stone of his book “Easy Money” published last year.
In the excerpt, Mr. McKenzie described meeting a CIA officer nearing retirement who expressed excitement about being able to smoke marijuana after leaving government service.
The experience left the Hollywood star confused.
“They seemed to know nothing about crypto, blockchain, or the fraudulence and criminality that we claimed undergirded the industry,” Mr. McKenzie wrote. “Why were two guys who expressed such ignorance about our core concerns recruiting us? Were we being had?”
Officers across the CIA know far more about new digital technologies than they did just a few years ago and appear intent on showing they are not visiting the Texas festival to get sloshed with celebrities. Last year’s conference, featured CIA deputy director David Cohen, and officers working in technology and digital innovation.
The CIA has made a concerted effort in recent years to make new inroads with academia and other research groups, including through the establishment of CIA Labs, a federal lab developed in response to challenges ranging from intellectual property theft to talent retention troubles.
CIA Labs created a new incentive structure for the agency’s officers that included the opportunity to obtain patents for their work so that they could later profit rather than watch their private sector colleagues mainly benefit from their labor.
CIA’s website encourages people attending this year’s SXSW to connect with the agency to learn about new opportunities to partner or work with spies.
“Partnerships are essential to all of our activities, and they are especially critical with respect to staying in advance of our adversary’s technical capabilities,” the agency’s website said. “CIA seeks partners from all market segments and levels to support our tactical and strategic technology initiatives.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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