Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has called for greater investment in artificial intelligence for the country’s security forces, identifying police personnel, equipment and data analysis as priorities. The proposal places AI within the state security apparatus: technology meant to help police perform their missions and strengthen the forces charged with maintaining order.
The Apparatus Gets an Upgrade
In a message marking National Police Week, Khamenei called for “a comprehensive strengthening of the forces responsible for safeguarding security in all respects, including human resources, hardware and software”. He singled out “the purposeful use of artificial intelligence in data analysis” to improve police capacity and make their work easier.
His message praised security forces for keeping order despite repeated US and Israeli attacks. Khamenei accused the United States and Israel of deliberately targeting police commanders and personnel, but said the attacks hadn’t weakened the forces’ ability to carry out their missions. That is his account; the statement gives no further details about the attacks or the police operations he praised.
Iran’s stated ambition goes beyond police data analysis. Under an official strategy, the country aims to rank among the world’s top 10 AI powers by 2032, with AI contributing 12 per cent of its gross domestic product. Efforts to bring AI into defence systems accelerated after Iran’s first direct military confrontation with Israel in 2024.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said last year, during military exercises, that it was using AI in drones developed domestically. Those systems included missiles capable of autonomously locking on to moving targets. Sanctions limit Iran’s access to advanced AI chips, but the military has described domestic development as part of its use of the technology.
The Human Decision, and the Strike
Iran isn’t the only state putting AI to work in military operations. 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 tools had shortened processes that typically took hours, and sometimes days, to mere seconds.
Cooper also said: “However, the final decision is always made by a human: what to strike, what not to strike, and when to strike.” That assurance stands beside the deadly toll from the war’s first day: a US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, killed more than 150 people, many of them schoolgirls.
A September report by Bloomberg said overreliance on AI tools, combined with outdated intelligence and imagery, contributed to the strike. The Pentagon hasn’t made the full findings of its investigation public. The victims’ deaths are established in the account; the precise role of AI remains disputed in the cited reporting, pending the investigation’s findings.
Iran’s plan to use AI in its armed forces and security apparatus was reported nearly three months before the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February, sparking the regional war. In April, Brig Gen Kioumars Heydari, then commander of the army’s ground forces and now deputy chief of staff, called AI “one of our priorities to maximise our defensive power”. Across rival state commands, the promise is speed: faster analysis and decisions, with a human authority still choosing what to strike. In Minab, more than 150 people were killed; the Pentagon’s complete account remains unpublished.