Head of the head Wired learned that the U.S. government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Project Activity (IARPA) will leave the unit this month to work at a quantum computing company.
Rick Muller’s massive efforts to reduce the scope of the U.S. intelligence community, including the office of the National Intelligence Corporation (ODNI), overseeing IARPA, are aiming to reduce the scope of the U.S. intelligence community, and Rick Muller stays. A familiar with Mueller’s plan confirmed that he will leave IARPA’s departure.
IARPA was born after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and is tasked with testing AI, quantum computing and other emerging technologies that could help spy agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
The Trump administration has been reportedly cutting the workforce of intelligence agencies as part of the president’s extensive efforts to remove diversity plans and streamline administration actions. Influential Republicans in the U.S. Senate also recently introduced legislation that would cut several ODNI plans, although IARPA is not in the listing target.
Muller, a chemist and longtime computer science researcher, has overseen some of the Department of Energy’s quantum computing programs before seizing IARPA’s ins ropes in April 2024. His last day at IARPA will be held on July 11, according to people familiar with his plans. He is joining IONQ, part of a race to commercialize quantum computing. IONQ declined to comment.
The technology used by spy agencies is usually kept confidential. But most of IARPA’s work is public. It has funded dozens of research projects in universities and other laboratories nationwide, including efforts to improve facial and speech recognition systems. Mueller told the Federal News Network in April that cybersecurity risks for large language models will be a priority for upcoming research.
The Trump administration fired workers and cut government grants in several other agencies for research, sparking national protests and endangering the future of science. ODNI is looking for a budget of about $82 billion in the coming year, up about 11.5% from the amount required in 2025. But National Intelligence Minister Tulsi Gabbard touted her workforce by 25% this year.
Last week, Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called Gabbard’s agent a “behemoth of understaffed, bureaucratic” and “coordinator coordinates with other coordinators.” He called for cuts and other changes that were “critical to keeping our country safe from the widespread threats we continue to face”.
A Cotton spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the Senator’s view on the IARPA. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
IARPA was imitated on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a program agency (DARPA) that has long been regarded as one of the federal government’s most advanced R&D departments and has successfully bet on technologies for vaccines, location tracking and language translation.
