S04 E05: Melisa Stivaletti, the Queen of OSINT, on Elevating OSINT with AI, Private-Public Synergy, and More

Guest introduction & background Melisa describes how the
2010–11 Arab Spring revealed the power of social-media data while
she was a Department of the Army civilian in Afghanistan. Since
then she has worked across academia, federal agencies, and the
private sector to professionalize open-source intelligence,
currently serving as OSINT Director at Guidehouse and chair of
AFCEA’s Emerging Professionals in the Intelligence Community (EPIC)
committee. Why OSINT matters now Every modern
investigation—military, law-enforcement, or corporate—relies on
publicly available information (PAI); skipping it “short-changes”
the mission. Recent unclassified U.S. DoD, ODNI, and Army OSINT
strategies publicly signal a whole-of-government commitment and an
invitation for industry partnership. Congress has underscored this
shift with the first House Subcommittee dedicated to open-source
intelligence. Public-private synergy & funding gaps Dual-use
commercial tools and venture-backed research and development give
the U.S. an edge, but the Intelligence Community still allocates
less than 1% of its budget to OSINT despite the discipline
providing roughly 30% of material in the President’s Daily Brief.
Cloud storage, advanced data sets, and continuous tool development
make OSINT “cheap relative to satellites” but far from free;
chronic underfunding risks hollowing out capabilities. Generative
AI opportunities & cautions Large language models accelerate
sense-making (summarization, triage, translation) amid an
ever-expanding data ocean. Analysts must demand rigorous sourcing
and bias evaluation—“every AI-generated sentence needs a
footnote”—and should favor secure, controlled models over public
chatbots. The real value lies in “a collector who knows how to use
AI,” not in AI replacing human tradecraft. Operational vs.
strategic OSINT Tactical users (SOF, JSOC) need rapid, geotagged,
mission-ready insights; strategic analysts focus on long-term
trends, indications & warnings, and partner sharing. Both
require advanced skills—data science, cyber forensics, provenance
verification—not just “having an internet connection.”
Professionalization & future skills Formal tradecraft
standards, dedicated career paths, and prompt-engineering expertise
are emerging to match HUMINT, SIGINT, and GEOINT. Melisa urges the
next generation of intel professionals to embrace OSINT’s
complexity, continuous learning curve, and growing strategic
impact. Persistent misconceptions debunked Myth #1: OSINT is
“free.” Reality: tooling, storage, and talent are expensive and
scaling. Myth #2: OSINT is inferior to classified sources. Reality:
it often provides the first, fastest, and sometimes only vantage
point—and stands on equal analytic rigor. Special Guest: Melisa
Stivaletti .