OSINT AI: How to Optimize Your Investigation in 2024

There's no doubt: OSINT AI is one of the novelties in the domain that will likely stay long. The researchers should remain in the loop and try out AI OSINT  instruments to enhance their investigation efforts. Learn more tips on integrating artificial intelligence into your research in this Molfar overview. 

What Is AI OSINT?

One can define AI for OSINT as a new branch of collecting intelligence enhanced by artificial intelligence instruments. You can apply AI in OSINT investigations at different stages and in various circumstances, such as: 

1. Identifying people, locations, organizations, and other critical entities in large datasets.
2. Detecting unusual or suspicious parts of photos or text. You can basically use AI to reveal whether the picture itself was generated by artificial intelligence. Moreover, apply the technology to enlarge the image, enhance the quality or identify unclear photo details in order to push forward the investigation. 
3. AI powered OSINT tools can monitor data sources 24/7 and give you real-time alerts.
4. The AI OSINT tools  that rely on natural language processing can be helpful for sentiment recognition with no manual human input needed. Natural language processing or NLP is a domain in machine learning that focuses on training AI how to communicate with and/or process human language. It is used for automated translation, chatbots, text analysis, etc. 

How are OSINT and AI Compatible?

Open-source intelligence collection and artificial intelligence are natural matches. OSINT involves gathering vast amounts of publicly available information, which can be time-consuming and require immense manual labor. AI-driven web crawlers and scrapers allow researchers to optimize their time so they can focus on interpreting data or conducting HUMINT investigations. 

When Is AI Better for OSINT? 

Hence, sometimes using AI OSINT tools  is an intelligent choice to speed up and optimize your investigation. Apply artificial intelligence for such steps of your research as:

• Automate Routine Parts of Investigation. It is much more effective to process vast datasets with the help of artificial intelligence than by hand. 
• Data Collection. Artificial intelligence can automate gathering vast amounts of data from different sources. For example, it can gauge findings from news articles, archives, social media, and other public databases.
• Predictive Analysis. Integrate artificial intelligence if you need to make predictions based on available patterns. 
• Natural Language Processing. NLP capabilities allow artificial intelligence tools to analyze text data, extracting keywords and entities from large volumes of content.
• Pattern Recognition. It excels at recognizing patterns and trends within data that are not immediately obvious. For example, machine learning algorithms can analyze user behavior on social media platforms to identify potential threats.
• Image and Video Analysis. Such tools can process visual data to extract insights, such as identifying people in pictures or interpreting speech from videos. Tools like facial recognition systems and lip-reading technologies can enhance the quality of investigations involving media content.
• Anomaly Detection. AI systems can flag unusual patterns that need in-depth investigation by learning what constitutes normal behavior in various contexts.

What Open Sources AI System Can Recognize?

Artificial intelligence can spot patterns and inconsistencies that would be much harder to notice with a naked human eye. That's why for some OSINT investigations, checking media files with AI is a must to reveal such things as: 

• AI can analyze video or audio files for signs of deepfakes. AI can detect subtle signs of manipulation by analyzing facial movements, audio inconsistencies, and pixel patterns.
• In images or videos, it can detect landmarks, geographical features, or specific environments. Then, it can approximate the location where the media was made. It is helpful for military intelligence to single out new structures, vehicle movement, or even military equipment.
• Artificial intelligence can transcribe audio content and analyze it for specific keywords, phrases, or tones of voice.
• AI tools for OSINT can approximate crowd size, density, and even demographics in images and videos. Such density maps show where people are most concentrated, which helps monitor events for safety hazards or assess crowd behavior.
• Such instruments can analyze similarity to find images that look alike across the web. It is helpful to trace the original place where the media was posted or keep track of places that have reposted it. 

What Is the Best AI for OSINT?

The answer depends on your needs. We often share what tools you can use to enhance your OSINT investigation. Check out some AI for OSINT instruments you can apply for your search:

Maltego

• Best For. Relationship mapping, cybersecurity, and social media network analysis.
• Features. Maltego excels in mapping connections between entities, individuals, organizations, IP addresses, or domains. It's powerful for cybersecurity and visualizing data from multiple sources.
• Capabilities. Maltego integrates with machine learning models for entity recognition. It enables users to automate and visualize relationships and analyze connections in datasets. The uniqueness of this instrument is that it automatically finds and then structures patterns in data. 

Palantir Foundry

• Best For. Enterprise-level intelligence, national security, and integration of data from different sources for the organizations. It is used by companies and governments to boost safety and monitor cybersecurity risks. 
• Features. Palantir Foundry aggregates data from diverse sources, structuring and analyzing it to produce insights.
• Capabilities. Advanced machine learning tools, entity recognition, and predictive analytics make it powerful for detecting patterns in complex datasets.

Ovis 1.6 Gemma 2-9B

• Best For. Location analysis, finding geolocation, land texture analysis, and describing entities on the photo. 
• Features. Ovis 1.6 Gemma 2-9B is an excellent choice for OSINT to optimize entity recognition within the large dataset of videos and photos.
• Capabilities. Picture identification is the tool's primary practical artificial intelligence open-source capacity. 

CarNet.AI 

• Best For. Identification of car models, generation, make color, and photo angle.
• Features. CarNet.AI OSINT instrument promises 97 percent accuracy of AI-driven car model recognition for vehicles released since 1995. 
• Capabilities. Artificial Intelligence can optimize even lousy-quality photos and match car details with more than 3100+ models in the database.

Face Match 

• Best For. Face recognition and singling out similarities between the two photos. 
• Features. Face Match can help you automate comparing two pictures to get an approximate similarity index. You can even analyze how old the person in the photo is and compare the image to official document photos. 
• Capabilities. The core of Face Match's AI capabilities is deep learning models for facial recognition. Its algorithms assess facial characteristics that hint at age, gender, and other demographics, enhancing the precision of person identification.

Read Their Lips 

• Best For. Interpreting what the person is saying based on the video clip. 
• Features. Read Their Lips allows you to analyze even silent or low-audio video footage, interpreting the speech content based on lip movements.
• Capabilities. Artificial Intelligence uses machine learning to map and interpret the complex movements of the lips.

AI Image Enlarger 

• Best For. Improving the quality of the picture, especially a photo of a human.
• Features. OSINT instrument AI Image Enlarger can boost the image quality 2, 4, and 8 times, so you can use the photo to compare it with others.
• Capabilities. The software uses advanced deep learning models to analyze the image and predict additional pixels, which helps maintain quality during enlargement.

Dataminr 

• Best For. Monitoring data changes in real-time, alerting about cybersecurity issues, and analyzing vast datasets online, such as social media. 
• Features. Dataminr uses an algorithm that studies immense volumes of public data and sends alert messages if a threat exists. 
• Capabilities. It allows users to boost their responsiveness to hazards and predict cyber attacks thanks to the involvement of artificial intelligence in OSINT. 

ESPY 

• Best For. Tracking digital presence, movements, and activity patterns in intelligence, security, and investigative domains. Identifying potentially risky social media profiles after OSINT check-ups. 
• Features. ESPY has an algorithm that tracks targets and sets up real-time alerts for mentions of the keywords. ESPY incorporates contextual analysis to filter through large datasets. 
• Capabilities. The AI OSINT  tool's NLP algorithms can analyze text for keywords, sentiment, and context. Such advanced NLP models can detect the context surrounding specific phrases or topics, which helps identify trends, track brand reputation, or spot early indicators of potential threats. 

Skopenow

• Best For. Conducting social media investigations and identity verification.
• Features. Skopenow specializes in extracting data from social media and public records and compiling a detailed profile of individuals based on their online presence. It's commonly used in fraud detection, background checks, and identity verification.
• Capabilities. Skopenow applies machine learning algorithms to recognize critical data points from social media, such as names, locations, and connections. It helps automate the profiling process by linking various online personas to a single individual.

Can You Use ChatGPT for OSINT?

Yes, you can integrate ChatGPT as one of your OSINT AI tools  to process data and gather needed background information. Consider these scenarios for the potential use of this artificial intelligence instrument in open-source data analysis: 

• ChatGPT can offer background information on specific topics, individuals, locations, or events. It can provide context for complex issues and suggest further exploring areas, especially in industries or regions requiring specialized knowledge. However, we recommend manually fact-checking information found by ChatGPT to avoid mistakes. 
• It can help generate keywords, hashtags, or terms likely to appear in open-source content related to the topic. This feature is helpful for SOCMINT investigations. 
• You can use ChatGPT to optimize your HUMINT investigations. Such AI OSINT tools can help you prepare text and/or background stories you will use to interact with the target. 

Can AI and OSINT Improve Cybersecurity?

Yes, artificial intelligence can become one of your trusty tools for preventing and minimizing cybersecurity threats. AI can uncover early indicators of cyber threats, such as leaked credentials, vulnerabilities, or discussions of new attack methods. Furthermore, AI-powered OSINT tools can streamline incident investigations by relating threat actor data, analyzing attack directions, and facilitating forensics. Even though artificial intelligence can't substitute human impact in cybersecurity, algorithms can make it easier to track down culprits.

Conclusion: Try an AI in OSINT Approach

OSINT and artificial intelligence are two domains that cross paths a lot nowadays. You can use the new AI tools for OSINT data searching and analyzing in 2024 to enhance your investigations with handy AI elements. Learn more about integrating AI to find and process open-source data with Molfar training courses.