Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has called for greater investment in artificial intelligence and advanced technology for the country’s security forces, including AI-assisted data analysis. Iran has also described AI as a priority for its defence systems and reported using the technology in domestically developed drones.
AI for Iran’s Security Forces
In a message marking National Police Week, Khamenei said police needed better personnel, equipment and technology. He called for “a comprehensive strengthening of the forces responsible for safeguarding security in all respects, including human resources, hardware and software”. Purposeful use of AI in data analysis, he said, would help police carry out their missions.
Khamenei praised security forces for maintaining order despite repeated US and Israeli attacks. He accused the United States and Israel of deliberately targeting police commanders and personnel, but said the attacks hadn’t undermined the forces’ ability to do their work.
Iran’s interest in using 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. The plan described a wider effort to bring advanced technology into the country’s security capabilities.
Military Applications and Stated Priorities
During military exercises last year, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was using AI in domestically developed drones, including missiles capable of autonomously locking on to moving targets. Sanctions restrict Iran’s access to advanced AI chips, but the reported use of domestically developed systems shows the country has pursued military applications despite those limits.
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 gross domestic product. The push to integrate AI into defence systems accelerated after Iran’s first direct military confrontation with Israel in 2024.
In April, Brig Gen Kioumars Heydari, then commander of the army’s ground forces and now deputy chief of staff, described AI as “one of our priorities to maximise our defensive power”. His statement put the technology within Iran’s declared effort to strengthen its military capabilities.
AI in the US War Against Iran
The United States 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”.
Cooper said the tools had cut processes that typically took hours, and sometimes days, down to seconds. He added that “the final decision is always made by a human: what to strike, what not to strike, and when to strike”.
The US bombing of an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, on the first day of the war killed more than 150 people, many of them schoolgirls. A September report by Bloomberg said overreliance on AI tools, alongside outdated intelligence and imagery, contributed to the strike. The full findings of a Pentagon investigation into the attack haven’t been made public.