FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau has undertaken a sweeping modernization of its technology and cybersecurity operations to counter the malicious use of artificial intelligence by adversarial countries, including China and Russia—moving beyond the temporary fixes favored by previous leadership.
Speaking to News Media, Patel said the FBI was forced to rebuild its aging technological infrastructure from the ground up.
“Everybody that looks at the bureau thinks they must have the best tech and technology in the world,” Patel said. “We didn’t because prior leadership, all they did for decades was put a band-aid over a band-aid over a band-aid and never took the time to fix it.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said the agency uses artificial intelligence to support human investigators, not replace them. (Getty Images)
Artificial intelligence now plays a growing role in the FBI’s operations.
Patel said the bureau uses AI to search vast databases and rapidly sort through tips submitted by the public, helping agents respond more quickly to potential terrorist threats and school shootings. He stressed that the technology is intended to augment human decision-making rather than take the place of FBI personnel.
“We get tips from our private sector partners and American citizens, and those tips come into our database now finally,” said Patel. “Instead of an old game of telephone where 50 people have to call 50 people, and it takes three days to get us the information, it’s ingested immediately. It’s analyzed.”
This photo illustration shows the Federal Bureau of Investigation logo on a smartphone, with an artificial intelligence chip and symbol in the background. (Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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After the information is analyzed, leads are distributed to FBI field offices, headquarters in Washington, D.C., is alerted, and agents are assigned to investigate, Patel said.
When Patel became FBI director, he said the agency had developed only two or three experimental AI applications throughout its history. That figure has since climbed beyond 140 use cases.
Calling AI a technology that “is here to stay” at the FBI, Patel said the bureau will continue operating within the law, preserve legal safeguards, and work with private-sector partners as its capabilities expand.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence has drawn increased scrutiny as lawmakers debate how to regulate the industry. Earlier this week, dozens of technology executives attended a White House summit with President Donald Trump and signed a voluntary, “morally binding” agreement centered on self-regulation.
This photo illustration depicts the Federal Bureau of Investigation logo on an Android smartphone, with a hacker figure shown in the background. (Miguel Candela/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters during an impromptu news conference outside the West Wing.
OpenAI recently dismissed three researchers who allegedly shared confidential company information with an outside AI safety organization, according to reports.
The terminations followed disclosures by OpenAI and other major AI developers about incidents involving rogue models that behaved unexpectedly or attempted to hack the systems of other companies.