{"id":7544,"date":"2026-03-19T16:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/us-intelligence-elevates-ai-as-a-top-global-threat-in-new-report\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T16:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T16:22:15","slug":"us-intelligence-elevates-ai-as-a-top-global-threat-in-new-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/us-intelligence-elevates-ai-as-a-top-global-threat-in-new-report\/","title":{"rendered":"US intelligence elevates AI as a top global threat in new report"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Artificial intelligence is a major subtheme of the U.S. intelligence community\u2019s annual report on threats\u2014one increasingly described in strategic, not just technical, terms.<\/p>\n

In its 2026 Worldwide Threat Assessment, released on Wednesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence calls AI a \u201cdefining technology for the 21st century,\u201d notes that it is being used in combat, and identifies China as \u201cthe most capable competitor\u201d to the United States. The assessment, released on Wednesday as intelligence leaders testified to lawmakers, offers a rare window into how they interpret the global threat landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new version of the annual report treats AI far more prominently than in 2024 and 2025. It gives AI a larger role in the report\u2014but one that resists easy categorization. Unlike enduring threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups, AI is treated less as a discrete actor or capability and more as a cross-cutting force shaping each of them.<\/p>\n

The 2024 report, for instance, describes AI as \u201cmoving into its industrial age,\u201d noting its potential for economic benefit and disruption, but also the hypothetical development of new \u201cchemical weapons\u201d and materials that could make China\u2019s or Russia\u2019s military more competitive. It also notes that authoritarian regimes might use AI to generate fake content and as a tool for mass surveillance and coercion of their own populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the next several years, governments are likely to exploit new and more intrusive technologies\u2014including generative AI\u2014for transnational repression,\u201d it says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That trend is well underway. AI-created misinformation and disinformation have proliferated across global social media, often supported by China, Russia, and other authoritarian regimes, and often at the expense of the U.S. government, military, or other institutions.<\/p>\n

The 2025 report took note of Russian deepfakes but didn\u2019t describe the intent or consequences. The authors were more concerned about Moscow\u2019s pioneering use of AI: on the battlefield, particularly in anti-drone efforts. They also highlighted China\u2019s \u201cmultifaceted, national-level strategy\u201d to displace the United States as the \u201cmost influential AI power by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past year, AI has seized a growing share of public attention, private investment, and White House and Defense Department focus. While the Pentagon has used it for\u00a0 intelligence analysis since 2017, the new threat report notes that AI \u201chas been used in recent conflicts to influence targeting and streamline decision-making, marking a significant shift in the nature of modern warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n

It reiterates its predecessors\u2019 emphasis on the importance of U.S. dominance in AI technology while also noting that \u201cother global powers’ robust progress in AI is challenging U.S. economic competitiveness and national security advantages.\u201d In particular, it says, \u201cChina is driving AI adoption at scale\u2014both domestically and internationally\u2014by using its sizable talent pool, extensive datasets, government funding, and burgeoning global partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is also a special warning about the use of autonomy in warfare. AI carries risks that require careful human engineering to mitigate the dangers of AI autonomy before they are broadly deployed.<\/p>\n

At the Wednesday hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that a China-run data-extortion operation\u00a0 last August foretold the future:\u00a0 the perpetrators used \u201can AI tool\u201d to extort \u201dinternational government, healthcare, public health, emergency services sectors, and religious institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s missing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Missing from today\u2019s hearing and the new report is any meaningful mention of AI\u2019s role in election interference, disinformation, and the advancement of autocracy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a big change from 2024, when those uses of AI drew much comment at the hearing connected with the annual threat assessment. Brett Michael Holmgren, then-assistant Secretary of State for intelligence and research, said that \u201ctools like generative AI will essentially lower the barrier for actors, state and non-state, with fewer resources to engage in potential election interference.\u201d CIA Director William Burns said that threat actors in the Arabian Peninsula had \u201cused AI to generate videos aimed at inspiring lone-wolf attacks as a result of the Gaza conflict as well.\u201d And Avril Haines, the then-Director of National Intelligence, said, \u201cRussia is deploying AI tools in the context of their influence efforts in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the Republican party and the Trump administration have dismantled efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation: pressing social-media companies to end moderation efforts, forcing universities to cease monitoring programs, and shuttering a key office at the Department of State.<\/p>\n

But allied governments continue to mark the threat. Kaja Kallas, the European Union\u2019s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, speaking on Tuesday at a conference in Belgium, noted: \u201cAI has taken cognitive warfare to the next level, in the movie business and many other sectors, including our democratic space.\u201d\n\n<\/svg><\/p>\n<\/div>\n