The US Department of Homeland Security is using Artificial Intelligence video generators from Google and Adobe to create and edit content shared with the public, according to a document released on Wednesday that inventories commercial Artificial Intelligence tools used across the agency. The filing appears amid a surge of immigration-related posts from agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement that promote President Trump’s mass deportation agenda, as tech workers increase pressure on their employers to distance themselves from those operations.
In a section describing “editing images, videos or other public affairs materials using AI,” the document discloses for the first time that DHS uses Google’s Veo 3 video generator and Adobe Firefly, estimating that the agency has between 100 and 1,000 licenses for these tools. The inventory also notes that DHS employs Microsoft Copilot Chat to generate first drafts of documents and summarize lengthy reports, and it uses Poolside software for coding tasks, alongside other unnamed commercial products, while Google, Adobe, and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The release helps explain how agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which sits inside DHS, may be producing the volume of content they post on X and other social platforms as immigration operations expand in US cities, including celebratory “Christmas after mass deportations” messages, Bible verse references, images of arrested individuals, and recruitment ads that frequently incorporate music without permission from artists. Some of these videos appear to be Artificial Intelligence generated, and the document provides the first concrete evidence that such generators are in use, although it remains impossible to verify which company’s tools were involved in any particular clip or whether a specific piece of content was Artificial Intelligence generated at all, in part because Adobe’s option to “watermark” Artificial Intelligence made videos does not always persist when content is reuploaded across platforms.
The document specifies that DHS has been using Flow, a Google product that combines its Veo 3 video generator with a suite of filmmaking tools that allow users to generate clips and assemble entire videos with Artificial Intelligence, including sound, dialogue, and background noise that can yield hyperrealistic results. Adobe’s Firefly generator, which the company launched in 2023 with a promise that it does not use copyrighted content in its training or outputs, similarly enables the creation of videos, images, soundtracks, and speech, although the DHS filing does not detail exactly how the agency applies these capabilities. In parallel, more than 140 current and former Google employees and more than 30 from Adobe have recently urged their companies to take a public stance against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the January 24 shooting of Alex Pretti, while Google’s leaders have stayed silent and previously joined Apple in October in removing apps meant to track Immigration and Customs Enforcement sightings, citing safety risks.
A separate document released on Wednesday reveals additional examples of DHS’s Artificial Intelligence ecosystem, including the use of more niche Artificial Intelligence products and a facial recognition app deployed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was first reported by 404Media in June.
