US intelligence elevates AI as a top global threat in new report

(Patrick Tucker – Defense One) Artificial intelligence is a major subtheme of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual report on threats—one increasingly described in strategic, not just technical, terms. In its 2026 Worldwide Threat Assessment, released on Wednesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence calls AI a “defining technology for the 21st century,” notes that it is being used in combat, and identifies China as “the most capable competitor” to the United States. The assessment, released on Wednesday as intelligence leaders testified to lawmakers, offers a rare window into how they interpret the global threat landscape. The new version of the annual report treats AI far more prominently than in 2024 and 2025. It gives AI a larger role in the report—but one that resists easy categorization. Unlike enduring threats from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups, AI is treated less as a discrete actor or capability and more as a cross-cutting force shaping each of them. – US intelligence elevates AI as a top global threat in new report – Defense One