Reports

CSET produces evidence-driven analysis in a variety of forms, from informative graphics and translations to expert testimony and published reports. Our key areas of inquiry are the foundations of artificial intelligence — such as talent, data and computational power — as well as how AI can be used in cybersecurity and other national security settings. We also do research on the policy tools that can be used to shape AI’s development and use, and on biotechnology.

Report

CSET’s 2024 Annual Report

Center for Security and Emerging Technology
| March 2025

In 2024, CSET continued to deliver impactful, data-driven analysis at the intersection of emerging technology and security policy. Explore our annual report to discover key research highlights, expert testimony, and new analytical tools — all aimed at shaping informed, strategic decisions around AI and emerging tech.

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Reports

China’s Military AI Wish List

Emelia Probasco, Sam Bresnick, and Cole McFaul
| February 2026

This report examines thousands of Chinese-language open-source requests for proposal (RFPs) published by the People’s Liberation Army between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2024. The RFPs the authors reviewed offer insights into the PLA’s priorities and ambitions for AI-enabled military technologies associated with C5ISRT: command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting.

Reports

Physical AI

John VerWey
| February 2026

This paper examines the convergence of artificial intelligence and robotics, analyzing the emerging field of Physical AI. It provides a detailed overview of the supply chain challenges, competitive dynamics, and policy considerations that define this potentially transformative emerging technology.

Reports

When AI Builds AI

Helen Toner, Kendrea Beers, Steve Newman, Saif M. Khan, Colin Shea-Blymyer, Evelyn Yee, Ashwin Acharya, Kathleen Fisher, Keller Scholl, Peter Wildeford, Ryan Greenblatt, Samuel Albanie, Stephanie Ballard, and Thomas Larsen
| January 2026

Leading artificial intelligence companies have started to use their own systems to accelerate research and development, with each generation of AI systems contributing to building the next generation. This report distills points of consensus and disagreement from our July 2025 expert workshop on how far the automation of AI R&D could go, laying bare crucial underlying assumptions and identifying what new evidence could shed light on the trajectory going forward.

CSET submitted the following response to the White House Office of Science and Technology in support of its "Accelerating the American Scientific Enterprise initiative.

Reports

China’s Embodied AI: A Path to AGI

William Hannas, Huey-Meei Chang, Valentin Weber, and Daniel Chou
| December 2025

China is embracing “embodied AI”—artificial intelligence integrated with physical agents, such as robots and drones—both for commercial reasons and as a path to artificial general intelligence (AGI). The trend reflects China’s signature approach to AI, which recognizes diverse paths to AI dominance vis-à-vis the large models favored in the United States. This report documents PRC support for AI embodiment, describes how it is understood by China’s research community, and maps out the related infrastructure.

Reports

AI Governance at the Frontier

Mina Narayanan, Jessica Ji, Vikram Venkatram, and Ngor Luong
| November 2025

This report presents an analytic approach to help U.S. policymakers deconstruct artificial intelligence governance proposals by identifying their underlying assumptions, which are the foundational elements that facilitate the success of a proposal. By applying the approach to five U.S.-based AI governance proposals from industry, academia, and civil society, as well as state and federal government, this report demonstrates how identifying assumptions can help policymakers make informed, flexible decisions about AI under uncertainty.

Reports

The U.S. Aerial Drone Market

Kyle Miller, Sam Bresnick, Jacob Feldgoise, and Christian Schoeberl
| November 2025

This report assesses the types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) platforms marketed in the United States and the finances of U.S.-headquartered UAV companies. It finds that most companies develop small UAVs, and only a handful develop more complex military systems. The report also finds that most drone manufacturers are privately held, venture-backed companies, many of which were founded after 2010, and investment activity is concentrated around firms that produce smaller UAVs.

As artificial intelligence systems are deployed and affect more aspects of daily life, effective risk mitigation becomes imperative to prevent harm. This report analyzes AI incidents to improve our understanding of how risks from AI materialize in practice. By identifying six mechanisms of harm, it sheds light on the different pathways to harm, and on the variety of mitigation strategies needed to address them.

Reports

The Use of Open Models in Research

Kyle Miller, Mia Hoffmann, and Rebecca Gelles
| October 2025

This report analyzes over 250 scientific publications that use open language models in ways that require access to model weights and derives a taxonomy of use cases that open weights enable. The authors identified a diverse range of seven open-weight use cases that allow researchers to investigate a wider scope of questions, explore more avenues of experimentation, and implement a larger set of techniques.