# Katrina Manson

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/people/katrina-manson/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 7 moments of Katrina Manson (Reporter, Bloomberg) talking, from an interview on Future of Life Institute Podcast published Sep 25, 2026.

- Role: Reporter, Bloomberg
- About: Investigated the US military's AI use and chronicled the Pentagon's Project Maven program in her book.
- On X: https://x.com/KatrinaManson

## What Katrina Manson said

- [AI sharply increased the number of targets the military could strike](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-sharply-increased-the-number-of-targets-the-military/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 7 min
  > “With the help of large language models as well, because that sped up processes.” — Katrina Manson · [10:42](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=642)
- [Computer vision struggled when Ukraine's battlefield changed](https://realalpha.app/s/computer-vision-struggled-when-ukraines-battlefield-changed/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min
  > “It had been trained on the desert. It had been trained on the jungle in the Philippines.” — Katrina Manson · [18:14](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=1094)
- [Targeting doctrine is shifting from human decisions to oversight](https://realalpha.app/s/targeting-doctrine-is-shifting-from-human-decisions-to/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min
  > “AI will initiate actions under human oversight rather than with the human making the decision.” — Katrina Manson · [24:28](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=1468)
- [Accurately labeled data matters more than the model](https://realalpha.app/s/accurately-labeled-data-matters-more-than-the-model/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min
  > “it is more valuable than the algorithm or the model. It is having access to well-labeled data” — Katrina Manson · [36:40](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=2200)
- [Maven was updated 50 times during Ukraine's first months](https://realalpha.app/s/maven-was-updated-50-times-during-ukraines-first-months/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min
  > “over the course of the first few months of Russia's invasion in Ukraine, Maven's smart system was updated 50 times.” — Katrina Manson · [27:54](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=1674)
- [AI companies lack visibility into classified military use](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-companies-lack-visibility-into-classified-military-use/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 3 min
  > “the companies themselves don't know how their AI is being used in classified operations.” — Katrina Manson · [31:37](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=1897)
- [AI made human judgment the longest step in a targeting cycle](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-made-human-judgment-the-longest-step-in-a-targeting-cycle/)
  Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026 · 2 min
  > “And it changed so that the longest part of the cycle ended up being the human judgment, just because everything else got so much quicker.” — Katrina Manson · [16:32](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/?t=992)

## The episode

- [Can Humans Still Control AI-Assisted Kill Chains? (with Katrina Manson)](https://realalpha.app/v/nPsqoXabzzc/) · Future of Life Institute Podcast · Sep 25, 2026