In a piece about “editing images, videos or other public affairs materials using AI,” it reveals for the primary time that DHS is using Google’s Veo 3 video generator and Adobe Firefly, estimating that the agency has between 100 and 1,000 licenses for the tools. It also discloses that DHS uses Microsoft Copilot Chat for generating first drafts of documents and summarizing long reports and Poolside software for coding tasks, along with tools from other corporations.
Google, Adobe, and DHS didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
The news provides details about how agencies like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which is a component of DHS, could be creating the massive amounts of content they’ve shared on X and other channels as immigration operations have expanded across US cities. They’ve posted content celebrating “Christmas after mass deportations,” referenced Bible verses and Christ’s birth, showed faces of those the agency has arrested, and shared ads aimed toward recruiting agents. The agencies have also repeatedly used music without permissions from artists of their videos.
A few of the content, particularly videos, has the appearance of being AI-generated, however it hasn’t been clear until now what AI models the agencies could be using. This marks the primary concrete evidence such generators are getting used by DHS to create content shared with the general public.
It still stays not possible to confirm which company helped create a selected piece of content, or indeed if it was AI-generated in any respect. Adobe offers options to “watermark” a video made with its tools to reveal that it’s AI-generated, for instance, but this disclosure doesn’t all the time stay intact when the content is uploaded and shared across different sites.
The document reveals that DHS has specifically been using Flow, a tool from Google that mixes its Veo 3 video generator with a set of filmmaking tools. Users can generate clips and assemble entire videos with AI, including videos that contain sound, dialogue, and background noise, making them hyperrealistic. Adobe launched its Firefly generator in 2023, promising that it doesn’t use copyrighted content in its training or output. Like Google’s tools, Adobe’s can generate videos, images, soundtracks, and speech. The document doesn’t reveal further details about how the agency is using these video generation tools.
Employees at large tech corporations, including greater than 140 current and former employees from Google and greater than 30 from Adobe, have been putting pressure on their employers in recent weeks to take a stance against ICE and the shooting of Alex Pretti on January 24. Google’s leadership has not made statements in response. In October, Google and Apple removed apps on their app stores that were intended to trace sightings of ICE, citing safety risks.
A further document released on Wednesday revealed latest details about how the agency is using more area of interest AI products, including a facial recognition app utilized by ICE, as first reported by 404Media in June.
