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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Data Brief

Chinese and U.S. University Rankings

Jack Corrigan and Simon Rodriguez
| January 2022

The strength of a country’s talent pipeline depends in no small part on the quality of its universities. This data brief explores how Chinese and U.S. universities perform in two different global university rankings, why their standings have changed over time, and what those trends mean for graduates.

Reports

AI and Compute

Andrew Lohn and Micah Musser
| January 2022

Between 2012 and 2018, the amount of computing power used by record-breaking artificial intelligence models doubled every 3.4 months. Even with money pouring into the AI field, this trendline is unsustainable. Because of cost, hardware availability and engineering difficulties, the next decade of AI can't rely exclusively on applying more and more computing power to drive further progress.

See our original translation of a 2021 plan from a local PRC government outlining its strategy for implementing military-civil fusion.

Data Brief

Comparing U.S. and Chinese Contributions to High-Impact AI Research

Ashwin Acharya and Brian Dunn
| January 2022

In the past decade, Chinese researchers have become increasingly prolific authors of highly cited AI publications, approaching the global research share of their U.S. counterparts. However, some analysts question the impact of Chinese publications; are they well respected internationally, and do they cover important topics? In this data brief, the authors build on prior analyses of top AI publications to provide a richer understanding of the two countries’ contributions to high-impact AI research.

Annual Report

CSET at Three

Center for Security and Emerging Technology
| January 2022

To mark CSET’s third birthday, this comprehensive progress report highlights our growth and key accomplishments to date.

It is common for observers to compare machine intelligence with individual human intelligence, but this tendency can narrow and distort understanding. Rather, this paper suggests that machines, bureaucracies and markets can usefully be regarded as a set of artificial intelligences that have been invented to complement the limited abilities of individual human minds to discern patterns in large amounts of data. This approach opens an array of possibilities for insight and future investigation.

Data Brief

Trends in AI Research for the Visual Surveillance of Populations

Ashwin Acharya, Max Langenkamp, and James Dunham
| January 2022

Progress in artificial intelligence has led to growing concern about the capabilities of AI-powered surveillance systems. This data brief uses bibliometric analysis to chart recent trends in visual surveillance research — what share of overall computer vision research it comprises, which countries are leading the way, and how things have varied over time.

Reports

AI and the Future of Disinformation Campaigns

Katerina Sedova, Christine McNeill, Aurora Johnson, Aditi Joshi, and Ido Wulkan
| December 2021

Artificial intelligence offers enormous promise to advance progress and powerful capabilities to disrupt it. This policy brief is the second installment of a series that examines how advances in AI could be exploited to enhance operations that automate disinformation campaigns. Building on the RICHDATA framework, this report describes how AI can supercharge current techniques to increase the speed, scale, and personalization of disinformation campaigns.

Data Snapshot

Exploring Supercomputing with the Map of Science

Autumn Toney
| December 15, 2021

Data Snapshots are informative descriptions and quick analyses that dig into CSET’s unique data resources. Our first series of Snapshots introduced CSET’s Map of Science and explored the underlying data and analytic utility of this new tool, which enables users to interact with the Map directly.

Reports

Making AI Work for Cyber Defense

Wyatt Hoffman
| December 2021

Artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role in cyber defense, but vulnerabilities in AI systems call into question their reliability in the face of evolving offensive campaigns. Because securing AI systems can require trade-offs based on the types of threats, defenders are often caught in a constant balancing act. This report explores the challenges in AI security and their implications for deploying AI-enabled cyber defenses at scale.