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 2025 Annual Report

Center for Security and Emerging Technology
| March 31, 2026

Each year, CSET’s annual report highlights our work and impact across technology and security issues. It shows how our research, convening, and engagement contribute to important policy conversations on emerging technologies.

In 2025, CSET advanced its mission to inform high-stakes decisions through rigorous, evidence-based analysis of the security implications of emerging technologies. Our independent research examines issues at the intersection of technology and security.

You can view a web version of our annual report or download it below.

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Read our translation of China's Cybersecurity Law, as amended in October 2025, which lays out the cybersecurity responsibilities of computer network users in China.

Data Brief

Trends in Robotics Patents

Margarita Konaev and Sara Abdulla
| November 2021

Advances in robotics technology are having a transformative effect on how people work, travel, communicate, and fight wars. This data brief provides an overview of global trends in robotics patents between 2005 and 2019, focusing in particular on the state of robotics patenting in Russia, as well as developments in military robotics patents both in Russia and across the globe.

How should the United States understand and respond to China’s technologically driven mass surveillance, internment and indoctrination in Xinjiang? Dahlia Peterson offers a set of policy recommendations in a coauthored report for the Brookings Institution.

Read our translation of a Chinese guide to the formulation of AI-related domestic and international standards.

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.

Read our translation of a Chinese city government list of AI use cases that includes proposals to use AI to strengthen China's surveillance state.

Data Brief

Patent Landscape for Computer Vision: United States and China

Simon Rodriguez, Melissa Flagg, and Autumn Toney
| October 2020

China’s surge in artificial intelligence development has been fueled, in large part, by advances in computer vision, the AI subdomain that makes powerful facial recognition technologies possible. This data brief compares U.S. and Chinese computer vision patent data to illustrate the different approaches each country takes to AI development.

Testimony

Testimony Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Saif M. Khan
| March 17, 2021

CSET Research Fellow Saif M. Khan testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for its hearing, "Advancing Effective U.S. Policy for Strategic Competition with China in the Twenty-First Century." Khan spoke to the importance of U.S. leadership in semiconductor and artificial intelligence technology.

Reports

Harnessed Lightning

Ryan Fedasiuk, Jennifer Melot, and Ben Murphy
| October 2021

This report examines nearly 350 artificial intelligence-related equipment contracts awarded by the People’s Liberation Army and state-owned defense enterprises in 2020 to assess how the Chinese military is adopting AI. The report identifies China’s key AI defense industry suppliers, highlights gaps in U.S. export control policies, and contextualizes the PLA’s AI investments within China’s broader strategy to compete militarily with the United States.

Reports

China’s AI Workforce

Diana Gehlhaus, Joanne Boisson, Sara Abdulla, Jacob Feldgoise, Luke Koslosky, and Dahlia Peterson
| November 2022

U.S. policies on artificial intelligence education and the AI workforce must grow, cultivate, attract, and retain the world’s best and brightest. Given China’s role as a producer of AI talent, understanding its AI workforce could provide important insight. This report provides an analysis of the AI workforce demand in China using a novel dataset of 6.8 million job postings. It then outlines potential implications along with future reports in this series.