Artificial intelligence and pervasive digital surveillance are upending the practice of espionage, pushing intelligence services to rethink time-tested tradecraft. With cameras, biometrics and data trails making clandestine meetings riskier, agencies are rebalancing away from traditional human spying and reviving analog methods—such as dead drops, chalk marks and invisible ink—to avoid detection. The shift underscores a broader recalibration of national security in which algorithms aid analysis, but also raise new counterintelligence challenges and avenues for deception. The result is a hybrid era of spycraft where “sticks and bricks” coexist with machine learning, and the margin for human error narrows.
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