Algorithms that Empower? Platformization in U.S. Intelligence Analysis

This paper discusses a computational architecture called the Analytic Component System (ACS), which aims to provide intelligence analysts with a service-oriented computational platform. This platform is designed to empower intelligence analysts by improving the integration of people, algorithms, software, tools, and manual work in the production of time-pressured intelligence assessments. Combining the perspectives of the ACS computer science design team and an embedded social scientist, this paper will use ACS to discuss the “platformization” of intelligence analysis and what this means for how we might think about and plan for reflexive design in future computational intelligence analytic systems.