As AI dominates news headlines day after day, CSET has kept pace by providing rigorous analysis on topics from the U.S.–China competition to AI and biotechnology. Our experts are known for the depth and integrity of their research. They regularly provide briefings to decision-makers at the highest levels and field inquiries from members of the press seeking to better understand what’s at stake as emerging technologies continue to reshape our world.
Applications
Our Applications team solidified CSET’s standing as a premier institute examining China’s adoption of AI. The team published an influential report that examined nearly 3,000 AI-related defense contract awards to identify how China’s commercial sector and People’s Liberation Army are working together to adopt military AI. The report was featured as an exclusive in the Wall Street Journal, served as the lynchpin for a high-profile conference with House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar and other esteemed China experts, and informed congressional oversight efforts of advanced chip exports from the U.S. to China.
Additionally, the team established a robust pipeline of research analyzing timely national security space challenges and burgeoning trends in international AI cooperation, all while continuing to regularly advise military leaders on emerging technology and directly informing the Pentagon’s policies and adoption of AI. The next year will yield further research into Chinese military AI efforts and deep dives on the hurdles hindering the U.S. military’s ability to leverage AI.
Biotech
As biotechnology developments drew attention from policymakers last year, CSET’s biotech team played a key role in evaluating emerging threats and informing stakeholders on appropriate responses. Team members authored two essays for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, one for its 80th anniversary edition highlighting the promise and peril of new biotechnology tools and another on ways to counter bioterrorism that was named one of the Bulletin’s top multimedia stories of 2025.
The team published new analysis tracing how NIH-funded research directly translates into human health improvements, commented on changes in public health policy and their implications for biodefense, and convened top policymakers, scientists, and industry leaders to identify and address the most pressing safety and security challenges in emerging biotechnology. The team’s findings were briefed to congressional staff, national security agencies, and the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, directly informing executive branch policy and final NSCEB recommendations. Our experts also built new inroads with officials from Singapore, Sweden, South Korea, and Japan, advising them on how international cooperation can address challenges related to dual-use and risky biological research. Future work includes efforts to provide recommendations for building U.S. biotechnology leadership in line with the Genesis Mission.
CyberAI
The CyberAI team continued its long-standing work of providing technical expertise to inform the most pressing AI policy questions. The team published analysis on AI’s effect on cybersecurity, the use of open weight models to spur research and innovation, and the progress that foreign competitors and open-weight model producers have made in gaining on the leading U.S. corporate models. This analysis served a crucial role in helping tech and policy communities understand the implications of major AI news events, from the unveiling of DeepSeek’s R1 model to Chinese hackers’ use of Anthropic tools to execute the first reported AI-orchestrated hacking campaign.
Additionally, the team hosted roundtables and published reports that outlined the potential of work-based learning for cyber jobs and harmonized AI guidance to support more efficient adoption of AI development standards by product developers. The team will continue to provide expertise to the AI policymaking community in 2026 with analysis on the growing use of distillation to support development of smaller models, recommendations for cybersecurity acquisition, and discussions on the opportunities and limitations of agentic AI.
Data
The CSET Data Team updated the interactive, public data tools on our Emerging Technology Observatory, and launched new data resources to help policymakers identify trends and make evidence-based policy decisions. The team completed major updates to our Map of Science tool, providing more coherently grouped research clusters to help users better understand the technological landscape. Additionally, updates to the Supply Chain Explorer illustrate where China has made progress in developing its own semiconductor manufacturing capability and where the U.S. still holds a sizable lead. The team also hosted a National Science Foundation-supported workshop with more than 30 experts to discuss open science, metascience, and the role that AI can play in promoting the two. A report on the event provided policymakers, funders, and researchers with high-priority recommendations to further advance AI-enabled open science and metascience.
In partnership with our workforce experts, the data team also launched PATHWISE, a tool to identify where cyber and AI talent is being produced and is most in demand. In 2026, the Data Team will launch a new interactive tool to explore global patents and publish new datasets with detailed technical information on over 2,000 advanced semiconductors and jumpstart a new project to build on our prior work mapping emerging science and technology trends around the world.
Governance
The Governance team made major strides in advancing CSET’s profile at the intersection of AI governance and international competition. The team testified on measures to protect U.S. advantages over China in frontier AI before the House Judiciary Committee. It also presented an all-CSET panel comparing U.S., EU., and Chinese approaches to AI at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ (IEEE) annual AI conference in the Bay Area, as well as attending events at the Paris AI Action Summit and producing analysis on the competing goals of international actors. Additionally, the team unveiled the updates to CSET’s Supply Chain Explorer to an audience of more than 150 policy experts, providing deeper analysis of China’s progress in increasing its own semiconductor production capacity.
The team published analysis on newly introduced AI legislation, mechanisms of AI risk and harm, and a framework for policymakers to compare and contrast the approaches of corporate, non-profit, and government frontier governance proposals. Our experts appeared across a wide range of media to discuss the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan and China’s AI soft power strategy with open models like DeepSeek. In 2026, the team will provide new insights on national implications of state-level AI governance efforts and examine how effective governance can strengthen democratic competitiveness in AI.
Peer Watch
The Peer Watch team solidified its role as an authoritative expert on China’s decades-old technology transfer programs, while raising the banner about China’s aggressive pursuit of artificial general intelligence. The team engaged directly with policymakers, including through testimony before the Senate Small Business Committee for its hearing on how the United States can better protect small businesses from the threat of Chinese technology transfer and espionage. Additionally, the team published multiple reports showing that China is aggressively pursuing artificial general intelligence and that they are doing so in a multitude of ways while U.S. companies focus more selectively on generative AI.
As policymakers grew concerned about the narrowing performance gap between U.S. and Chinese advanced AI and the latter’s ability to deploy smaller and more efficient models, CSET’s analysis served as a particularly crucial reminder that China’s diversified approach in developing advanced AI could pose a threat to the United States’ AI leadership. The team shared their insights over the last year in briefings with U.S. and allied government agencies, op-eds and media interviews across a variety of channels. The team looks forward to continuing their public and government outreach, while diving deeper into the ways Chinese leadership is working to align new AI tools with its political and social preferences.
Workforce
The Workforce team advanced data-driven analysis on how AI is reshaping labor markets critical to U.S. competitiveness and security, while expanding its engagement with policymakers to collectively tackle the most pressing emerging technology workforce challenges. In partnership with the Data team, Workforce launched PATHWISE, a data tool to understand where cyber and AI talent is being produced, where it is in demand, and how policymakers, educators, and industry can better bridge the two. The team also launched its CSET Salon Series, a recurring forum to bring together experts across government, industry, academia, and philanthropy to discuss ways to better attract and retain tech talent in government.
The team engaged with policymakers through congressional briefings, a formal response to the Trump Administration’s Request for Information on high-skilled immigration, and a workshop on the AI chip manufacturing workforce. Looking ahead, the team is excited to produce analysis on the role that workers play in the successful adoption of AI and develop an expanded, more granular version of PATHWISE.