The FBI has observed a massive uptick in the number of tips it is receiving, and the bureau is using artificial intelligence to sort through the thousands of incoming phone calls and emails.
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate said at the Billington CyberSecurity Summit that the bureau often records approximately 4,000 incoming calls and emails providing tips in a given day.
Mr. Abbate said on Wednesday that he just learned during a morning meeting that the FBI received a record number of incoming tips surging past 7,000 in one day.
“We only have so many personnel, human beings, that are applied to that so we’re leveraging technology and AI to help … prioritize incoming complaints so that nothing is missed,” Mr. Abbate said.
Asked if the uptick in tips was about a specific threat or reflected a heightened number of threats, the FBI told The Washington Times on Thursday that the increase was not attributable to a specific category of threat.
“Tips are received on a wide array of issues including possible counterterrorism, cyber crime, theft, public corruption, violent crime, and various other potential federal violations,” the bureau said in an emailed statement. “While we generally do not discuss specific tip content, there was not an identified theme related to this week’s influx of tips.”
The bureau said its National Threat Operations Center in West Virginia collects tip info from all of its 56 field offices. The bureau told The Times it gathers an average of 4,300 calls and electronic tips every day.
The FBI has previously shared details about how it uses AI to comb through tips. In June, Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division, said the bureau deployed AI on tips because the tech can spot what people might miss.
“After it’s looked at by a human, after it’s flagged one way or another, we’re using natural language processing models to also go over the synopsis of the text of what that phone call or online [tip detailed] to see did we miss something?” Ms. Kaiser said at a conference hosted by General Dynamics Information Technology.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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