Shalev Hulio, who was CEO of the NSO Group by 2022, believes that countries outside the US should not rely on US companies to have their own Artificial Intelligence.
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28/10/2026
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O co-founder and former CEO of Israeli company NSO Group – better known for being responsible for “spyware” Pegasus – said that countries should create their own Artificial Intelligence rather than rely on US companies.
Shalev Hulio, who left the position of CEO of the NSO Group in 2022, says in an interview with Financial Times that “all governments must have their own model” artificial Intelligence.
“ They shouldn’t risk anyone ever waking up and shutting down their model because Artificial Intelligence is a critical infrastructure.”, explained Hulio. “You want to be able to control your own Artificial Intelligence”.
It is worth noting that since leaving the NSO Group, Hulio has collaborated to found Dream – a company that has started developing artificial intelligence tools to strengthen the security defenses of government entities.
“ We are telling entities within governments that you must have a very specific but very smart model that can be executed quickly with one, two or three GPUs.”, said Hulio.
It is important to remember that the NSO Group continues to be criticized for the development of Pegasus spy software, which was used to exploit vulnerabilities in WhatsApp on thousands of devices belonging to government officials. Meanwhile, the NSO Group has entered the U.S. “blacklist” and remains a source of strong criticism not only in the European Union but also in the United Nations.