Iran's supreme leader calls for greater use of AI to strengthen security

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has called for greater investment in artificial intelligence and advanced technology to strengthen the country's security forces.

In a message marking National Police Week, he said Iran needed to bolster its police force through improvements in personnel, equipment and technology, particularly the use of AI in data analysis.

"A comprehensive strengthening of the forces responsible for safeguarding security in all respects, including human resources, hardware and software – particularly through the advancement of technology, such as the purposeful use of artificial intelligence in data analysis – plays an important role in improving the ability of the police force to carry out their missions and facilitates their work," he said.

Mr Khamenei also praised the country's security forces for maintaining order despite repeated US and Israeli attacks. He accused the US and Israel of deliberately targeting police commanders and personnel, but said the attacks had failed to undermine the ability of security forces to carry out their missions.

The National revealed late last year that Iran planned to use AI in its armed forces and security apparatus – nearly three months before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, sparking the regional war.

Despite restrictions on its access to advanced AI chips owing to sanctions, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said last year during military exercises that it was using AI in domestically developed drones, including in missiles capable of autonomously locking on to moving targets.

The announcement highlighted Tehran's determination to keep pace with the global AI race. Under an official strategy, Iran aims to rank among the world's top 10 AI powers by 2032, with AI contributing 12 per cent of its GDP.

The push to integrate AI into Iran's defence systems accelerated after its first direct military confrontation with Israel in 2024. In April, Brig Gen Kioumars Heydari, commander of the army’s ground forces at the time and now deputy chief of staff, described AI as "one of our priorities to maximise our defensive power”.

The US has also used AI in its war against Iran. In March, Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of US Central Command, said AI systems “allow us to analyse large volumes of data within seconds, enabling our leaders to make the right decisions faster than the enemy amid the noise”.

He said advanced AI tools had reduced processes that would typically take hours, and sometimes days, to mere seconds. “However, the final decision is always made by a human: what to strike, what not to strike, and when to strike,” he added.

But the US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the war – an attack that killed more than 150 people, many of them schoolgirls – raised questions about AI's role in military operations.

A September report by Bloomberg said an overreliance on AI tools, alongside outdated intelligence and imagery, contributed to the strike. The full findings of a Pentagon investigation into the attack have not yet been made public.