An automated report-writing tool built by the military cut the time needed to brief the White House on a World Cup bomb threat from about 20 minutes to 90 seconds. Army Capt. Ryan Hetrick shared the previously undisclosed case on Nov. 6 at an AI event in Washington.
Hetrick leads the Pentagon’s Generative AI Task Force. He said the tool played a large part in stopping a threat at SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles on June 18.
That day, Switzerland played Bosnia and Herzegovina at the stadium. The public was not told about the threat at the time.
How the Spot Report Agent Worked
The tool was designed just three days before the match. Hetrick and colleagues from the Defense Department, FBI and Coast Guard met at the White House to build it for the World Cup Task Force.
The agent writes spot reports. These are short, time-sensitive accounts of fast-moving situations.
Under the setup, law enforcement on the ground would call the White House during a security incident. The World Cup task force would then write a spot report and send it up the chain of command to plan a response.
Hetrick said that writing process usually takes about 20 minutes. The AI agent can finish the same job in 90 seconds.
That gap left officials more time to act on the threat instead of waiting on paperwork. Hetrick did not share details on the nature of the threat or how it was stopped.
“They had an extra 18 minutes for the White House to coordinate on the ground, and that bomb threat was deterred,” Hetrick said. “You guys never heard about that bomb threat the day of June 18, and our agent was a large part of that.”
Spokespeople for the White House, FBI and local law enforcement agencies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Tournament With Heavy Security
The 2026 World Cup drew more than six million fans to over 100 matches in 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The two-month event led to a large interagency effort that used tools like AI and drones.
The Los Angeles case was not the only threat. Two people were charged in connection with a separate bomb threat during a World Cup match at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
FBI Director Kash Patel described the bureau’s work in a video after the tournament. “We ran down criminal tips, investigated swatting incidents, hoax bomb threats and online scams,” he said.
Patel added that it was “the most extensive level of support the FBI has ever provided for a global sporting event.”
Hetrick has become one of the military’s most active promoters of AI. His GenAI Task Force travels around the world to meet troops on operations floors and in the field, looking for AI fixes to their most pressing problems.
He urged others in the military to take the same hands-on approach. He encouraged troops to work with AI experts and to use skilled service members as in-house AI guides who can share what they learn.
Hetrick pointed to a recent visit to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. There, he built an AI tool that cut the time for a cyber operations workflow from 100 hours to 15.
That tool is now available to all cyber officers across the department, he said. “We don’t do policy shops. We don’t do PowerPoints. We go to the edge and build with the warfighter. You can’t be building agents from the Pentagon.”
