CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the capabilities of artificial intelligence in global confrontations are comparable to the potential of nuclear weapons, Bloomberg reported.

According to Ratcliffe, the worldwide development of AI tools will continue raising the stakes in America’s competition with its adversaries. He said the CIA has signed around 400 technology contracts linked to AI development and deployment over the past six months.

Ratcliffe also pointed to the strong potential of Elon Musk’s companies and said he had even invited the entrepreneur to the agency.

The CIA chief explained that the agency has launched a new procurement system and moved to standardize data in order to speed up the adoption of artificial intelligence. Bloomberg noted that this approach echoes January remarks by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth about reforms needed for the rapid deployment of AI in the military.

At the same time, Ratcliffe stressed that humans will retain the central role in the CIA’s use of artificial intelligence, since only people can decide which course is right. He also called for taking risks in pursuit of new technologies and said the agency will continue experimenting with AI.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Palantir’s Maven artificial intelligence system is expected to become an official Pentagon program. U.S. military forces were already said to be using the system’s tools.