FBI Director Kash Patel touted on Monday the “central” role artificial intelligence plays at the federal law enforcement agency, arguing it has helped officials run a “faster, more efficient, and more accountable crime-fighting machine.”
“When I first arrived at the FBI, AI had no role at the Bureau,” Patel wrote in a post to X, highlighting a Fox News op-ed he wrote on the matter. “Now, AI is central to everything we do – and every day it’s helping us triage tips, stay ahead of threats, crush violent criminals, and be more accountable to the taxpayer.”
In the op-ed, Patel claimed responsibility for taking the FBI “out of the past and into the AI Age.” He accused the Biden administration of running the agency on “archaic patchwork systems without AI, effectively putting a 2025 car battery into a vehicle from 1985.” AI tools are now enhancing FBI performance, and saving taxpayer dollars, Patel said, claiming that the agency’s “Enterprise AI assistant” has slashed $300 million in spending and identified over $1 billion in contract ceiling savings.
How does the FBI use AI?
AI is helping agents identify criminals faster, including through deepfake detection systems, Patel wrote. In 2025, the FBI located 6,300 missing children and arrested 2,000 abusers due “largely” to utilizing AI through private sector agreements, he said.
“We’re identifying and arresting more fraudsters, scammers, and drug traffickers who try to hide their identities, thanks to AI,” he said. “Through cooperative research and development agreements with the private sector, the FBI is advancing our deepfake detection systems in support of these investigations.”
It’s not the first time Patel has said he is working with private-sector partners to build an AI infrastructure targeting crime. During a recent appearance on the Hang Out with Sean Hannity podcast, Patel said it was due to such cooperation that the FBI was able to prevent a school shooting in New York.
“I’ve got every major tech company embedded into the FBI,” he told Hannity earlier this month. “And the ability for artificial intelligence to be in our counterterrorism program so we can get instantaneous results.”
Major U.S. technology companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI, have agreed to give the federal government early access to their new AI systems for national security reviews before they are publicly released, effectively giving the government influence and review over cutting-edge AI development.
Fingerprinting
AI has revolutionized fingerprinting matching, allowing the FBI to apprehend individuals who previously avoided detention by manipulating their identities, according to Patel. He said the agency’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division integrated an AI-driven fingerprint-detection capability that identified 34 altered fingerprint identities last year.
“Fingerprint matching is one of the most common methods the FBI uses to identify individuals,” Patel wrote. “Some adversaries try to manipulate their prints to obscure their identities by burning, cutting or biting their fingertips to remove ridge detail and make it difficult or impossible to make a match. Because fingerprint matching is an automated process, altered fingerprints were being missed. CJIS … detected 34 altered fingerprint identities, ultimately leading to the positive identification and arrest of wanted persons, drug traffickers, and fraudsters.”
Transcription
The FBI is using AI tools to enhance call transcription analysis at the National Threat Operations Center, allowing officials to provide a swifter response to threats, Patel said. The process was recently used to stop a mass shooting from taking place at a North Carolina school, he claimed.
“This FBI now uses new AI tools to generate call transcriptions, provide concise synopses, and even help correlate contacts with other received complaints,” he wrote. “AI tools generate a transcript of the call, draft an effective summary of the threat, and immediately scan our database for comparisons to other open threat lines. Every tip also receives a lead value to surface the highest threat-related calls for Threat Intake Examiners.”
Patel previously made the claim about preventing the North Carolina shooting on Hannity’s podcast, as he detailed how the agency had integrated AI into its National Threat Operations Center and the Criminal Justice Information Services database to sift through the thousands of tips it receives every week.
“If we had just humans look at it, we would never sift through them all,” he told Hannity. “We stopped a school massacre in North Carolina because we got a tip, and we were able to triage it with artificial intelligence.”
Data analysis
The FBI is using AI to facilitate rapid translations of large volumes of text, audio, and video, and to triage terabytes of data, according to Patel.
THE AGE OF AI IS HERE — HOW SHOULD IT BE REGULATED?
That method has spurred investigative efforts, as current AI models translate with 80% accuracy, “so our linguists can home in on the 20% that requires a human touch,” he said.
“We are not replacing humans; we’re supplementing them, sharpening their focus and expediting the pace of our investigations,” Patel said. “Collecting data to sit in storage is like keeping Babe Ruth on the bench permanently.”
