Industry groups push to keep open-source measures in annual intelligence bill

"The missives are undersigned by firms like the Babel Street and the ANDECO Institute, which sell risk and threat intelligence services derived from commercially or publicly available information that's not necessarily gathered through more covert means available to spy agencies. Graphika, which performs social media network analysis to identify disinformation campaigns, is also a signatory. The measures, housed in Title 6 of the House Intelligence Committee's version of the fiscal year 2026 Intelligence Authorization Act, are also supported by the OSINT Foundation, a professional association of open-source practitioners in the U.S. intelligence community."

"Open-source intelligence, dubbed OSINT, is the collection and analysis of publicly available data - like social media posts, news reports or satellite imagery - to generate insights that support national security and law enforcement decisions. The Title 6 measures, in essence, aim to further legitimize the use of OSINT in day-to-day intelligence work, going as far as to require spy agencies to appoint senior officials responsible for managing and coordinating their OSINT activities. "The arrival of mission-relevant artificial intelligence (AI) systems within the past two years means the [U.S. intelligence community] is, for the first time, able to make use of large unclassified datasets at scale to deliver decision advantage to U.S. policymakers and warfighters," one of the letters says."

A coalition of industry groups and former officials is pressing Congress to retain Title 6 provisions that support open-source intelligence (OSINT) within the fiscal year 2026 Intelligence Authorization Act. Signatories include commercial OSINT providers such as Babel Street, the ANDECO Institute, Graphika, and the OSINT Foundation, along with former intelligence officials. The Title 6 measures would further legitimize routine OSINT use and require agencies to appoint senior officials to manage and coordinate OSINT activities. The letters contend that recent mission-relevant AI enables large unclassified datasets to be used at scale for decision advantage. The House intelligence panel has formed an open-source subcommittee.

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