Artificial intelligence has been used to avert at least two school shootings, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview posted Tuesday.
“We stopped a school massacre in North Carolina because we got a tip and we were able to triage it with artificial intelligence,” Patel said.
School shootings have been on the rise in recent years in the U.S., according data provided by the K-12 Shooting Database. More than 100 per year have been reported since 2018, with a spike of more than 300 per year from 2022 to 2024. There were 235 school shootings reported last year and 69 so far this year.
“We stopped a school shooting in New York because we got a tip from our private sector partners who are building our AI infrastructure,” Patel added in the interview with Hannity. He also criticized the FBI under former President Joe Biden for allegedly failing to implement AI tools.
“AI was never used at the FBI until we got there,” Patel said, adding “I’m using it everywhere,” including the National Threat Operations Center. He compared it to data analysis featured in the 1992 film “Patriot Games” and said it would be impossible to go through all the FBI tips with humans alone.
According to the FBI website, “AI gives the FBI new tools and capabilities – like vehicle recognition, triage of voice samples for language identification, and generation of text from speech samples – that process data to detect, deter, and defeat criminal activity and national security threats more quickly.”
Patel said that it particularly useful for sifting through the many tips received by the FBI. Per the agency website, the bureau only uses information generated through AI for investigative leads.
While AI can be a valuable tool, there are still some concerns regarding its use in law enforcement. An Audacy report from last month highlights how the technology isn’t always correct – AI-powered app CrimeRadar erroneously reported a shooting at Mt. Vernon Elementary School in Missouri, causing panic among the community.
“A human being is ultimately accountable for the actions taken, not an AI,” said the FBI website. “This includes ensuring a trained investigator or analyst is responsible for assessing the output of our AI systems before any further substantive actions are taken.”
Patel stressed the importance of supplying FBI agents across the country with modern tools in his interview with Hannity.
