AI Use in the FBI is up 605% According to Kash Patel

According to a report from Tom's Hardware by Bruno Ferreira, FBI Director Kash Patel claimed during a recent Fox News interview that artificial intelligence use across the bureau has skyrocketed by 605% under his leadership, describing the technology as an essential lawful triage tool that has already aided in stopping school shootings across North Carolina and several other states. While Patel's massive "605%" figure lacks a clear public baseline, external data points show the agency’s AI footprint is aggressively expanding: approved FBI AI use cases surged from 50 in a February 2026 DOJ inventory to 139 by August, backed by an $88 million procurement request for dedicated AI servers and blanket government access to models like Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT. Beyond internal workflow automations—such as speeding up search warrant message reviews, transcription, and call analysis—Patel revealed in a Senate hearing that major tech players are directly collaborating on law enforcement matters to crack down on AI-assisted crime, facial recognition, and illicit model distillation, underscoring that Big Tech and generative tools are now deeply embedded inside federal investigative infrastructure.