FBI Director Kash Patel explained the major AI overhaul at bureau under the Trump administration, and its concrete public-safety results, especially protecting children and stopping attacks, as well as efficiency and savings gains.
“From child exploitation cases to mass shooting prevention, the bureau’s AI overhaul is delivering record-breaking results,” Patel wrote in an op-ed for Fox News, titled, “We brought the FBI out of the past and into the AI age.”
Patel explained that when he arrived at the bureau, “the FBI was running on archaic patchwork systems without AI, effectively putting a 2025 car battery into a vehicle from 1985.”
“In the past year,” he continued, “We have rebuilt and revamped the FBI’s infrastructure across the enterprise, helping the bureau achieve record-breaking results in crushing violent crime and defending the homeland, while providing historic transparency.”
Patel went on to reveal, “Artificial intelligence is a huge part of that overhaul.”
“AI is central to what we do,” the FBI director added, noting that the bureau is using the technology to help agents “identify victims of child exploitation, arrest and convict predators, and more.”
Patel elaborated:
Last year alone, this FBI identified and located 6,300 missing kids, a 30% increase, and arrested 2,000 abusers, a 20% increase — largely thanks to these improvements. In a recent FBI Richmond case, the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit used facial recognition tools to save 8- and 12-year-old children from a would-be abuser, who will now spend 50 years in prison.
“We are not replacing humans,” Patel added, insisting that instead, the FBI is “supplementing them, sharpening their focus, and expediting the pace of our investigations.”
“Collecting data to sit in storage is like keeping Babe Ruth on the bench permanently,” he said. “We’re identifying and arresting more fraudsters, scammers and drug traffickers who try to hide their identities, thanks to AI.”
Patel added that “Through cooperative research and development agreements with the private sector, the FBI is advancing our deepfake detection systems in support of these investigations.”
“Equally important, AI is helping this FBI be more accountable to the taxpayer by applying it to business operations across the bureau and getting maximum value out of your money,” Patel said.
“With the help of our Enterprise AI assistant, this FBI cut $300 million in spending and identified more than $1.2 billion in contract ceiling savings,” he added.
Author Wynton Hall has written the instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI, to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that reap the benefits of this powerful technology without stepping on landmines planted by Silicon Valley or communist China.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.