By Nick Robins-Early
Publication Date: 2026-03-21 14:00:00
The FBI says it can conduct mass surveillance without AI, despite Anthropic’s protests.
A central part of the dispute between Anthropic and the Defense Department revolved around the artificial intelligence company’s refusal to allow its technology to be used for domestic mass surveillance. But even without the cooperation of AI companies, comments from FBI Director Kash Patel this week show that authorities already reasonably have a system in place that can monitor citizens on a large scale.
On Wednesday, Patel confirmed to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the FBI is actively purchasing commercially available data on Americans. Patel’s response, made under oath, was in response to a question from Senator Ron Wyden about whether the agency was purchasing location data from citizens, as it had admitted to doing in 2023.
As the debate over how the U.S. federal government uses AI has come to the forefront in recent months, it has also provided new impetus…
