FBI Director Kash Patel loves a big number.
He’s been rattling off statistics about crime, terror plots, and now artificial intelligence.
And the figure he just gave Fox News about the FBI’s use of AI is going to raise some eyebrows.
605 Percent And Six School Shootings Stopped
Patel joined Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany on Saturday in America and discussed using AI to “triage data.” The Trump-appointed FBI Director has made a habit of touting the bureau’s technological overhaul since he took the top job.
McEnany asked Patel about a statement he made in March claiming the FBI had prevented a school shooting in North Carolina after triaging a “tip” through AI software.
Patel didn’t hesitate. “We’ve done it in North Carolina and about half a dozen other states to prevent school shootings since I’ve been in the seat,” Patel said.
He then laid out his broader philosophy on the technology. “AI, when used lawfully, is a critical tool to triage data. For far too long the institutional morass in D.C. rejected the advancements of technology,” Patel said.
Then came the number that’s going to stick. “I have increased the use of AI in the FBI by 605%,” Patel said.
But he wasn’t finished. “And what we’re about to do is work with our private sector partners and work with our state and local partners and look at databases and collect information and get DNA and then get these threats back out to the field and stop people from killing children at schools,” Patel said.
The 605 percent figure isn’t a one-off talking point Patel dreamed up for a Fox News hit. He’s repeated similar language in prepared testimony delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the FBI’s statement read, “We expanded our use of artificial intelligence by 605 percent to accelerate threat detection, triage, analysis, and processing.”
Every Major Tech Company Embedded Inside The FBI
This isn’t the first time Patel has bragged about the FBI’s AI capabilities. He told Fox News’ Sean Hannity back in May that AI played a role in stopping a potential school shooting in North Carolina.
“We stopped a school massacre in North Carolina because we got a tip and we were able to triage it with artificial intelligence,” he said.
Patel also revealed just how deep the tech industry’s fingerprints go inside the bureau. “I’ve got every major tech company in the world embedded in the FBI, rebuilding our internet capabilities, our classified systems, and the ability for artificial intelligence to be in our counterterrorism program so we can get instantaneous results,” Patel said.
That’s a remarkable admission. The nation’s premier law enforcement agency now has private tech companies wired directly into its counterterrorism operations.
Patel has framed this as long overdue modernization after years of what he calls institutional stagnation at the Bureau. Whether that overhaul comes with the oversight it deserves is a separate question entirely.
What Does Kash Patel’s AI Push Really Mean?
Handing more of the federal government’s most sensitive counterterrorism and criminal justice work to artificial intelligence systems designed and run by Silicon Valley isn’t something conservatives should accept without asking hard questions.
Big Tech has spent years throttling, shadowbanning, and demonetizing conservative voices over COVID policy, the 2020 election, and January 6. Handing that same industry a bigger footprint inside federal law enforcement, even under a Trump-appointed director, deserves scrutiny rather than a pat on the back.
And the concerns about AI go well beyond politics. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned this month that AI’s pace must be slowed down or rogue AI agents could take over the internet in 12 months, a call that tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman backed.
That’s not a fringe warning. That’s the head of one of the country’s leading AI companies telling the public the technology is moving faster than anyone can safely manage.
Patel wants Americans to hear “605 percent” and think “safer country.” Maybe that’s true. Stopping school shootings before they happen is a goal nobody should oppose.
But a 605 percent increase in AI usage, without a public accounting of what data trains these systems, what companies have access to FBI databases, or what guardrails exist to keep the technology from being turned against ordinary citizens instead of terrorists, is the kind of statistic that ought to come with more transparency than a Saturday morning cable hit provides.
Government agencies expanding surveillance and automated decision-making tools have a mixed record at best. Flock Safety cameras track the movements of law-abiding drivers without warrants. Data centers built to power these systems drive up electricity bills for ordinary families while delivering few permanent local jobs.
Now the FBI says it has “every major tech company in the world” embedded inside its walls. That’s a big claim, and it’s one that deserves more follow-up than a friendly Fox News segment typically provides.
Patel is right that the FBI spent years mired in bureaucratic dysfunction. Nobody who lived through the Bureau’s politicized conduct during the Trump-Russia investigation or the Hunter Biden laptop suppression needs convincing that reform was overdue.
But modernization and unchecked expansion of AI-driven surveillance are two different things, and Americans deserve to know which one they’re actually getting.
Sources: Mediaite, “Kash Patel Boasts on Fox He’s Increased the Use of AI in the FBI by 605%”; The Hill, “Kash Patel says FBI used AI to stop school shootings”; Fox News Digital
