Non-Human Intelligence

Scope and terminology

Broader than extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial intelligence names a specific hypothesis: intelligent life that originates beyond Earth. Britannica defines extraterrestrial intelligence as "hypothetical extraterrestrial life that is capable of thinking, purposeful activity."¹² Non-human intelligence is deliberately wider. It includes the extraterrestrial case, but it also leaves room for agents whose origin is unknown, for a non-biological or machine intelligence rather than a living species, and for hypotheses that fall outside conventional categories. The term's value in careful writing is this restraint. It marks the agent as non-human without asserting the further and separate proposition that the agent came from another planet.

Non-human intelligence and SETI

The distinction matters most when the term is set against SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The SETI Institute describes its work as "the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, focused on detecting evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth," and its experiments listen for technological signals, radio and optical, from "intelligent beings in other star systems."¹¹ SETI is built on the extraterrestrial hypothesis and searches interstellar distances for a signal. Non-human intelligence, as used in the UAP context, makes no such commitment. It is applied to phenomena reported in Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and near-space rather than to signals from distant stars, and it holds the origin question open rather than assuming a biological civilization on another world.

A phrase with other meanings

The same words carry unrelated meanings in other fields. In animal-cognition research, nonhuman intelligence refers to the intelligence of other species on Earth. Denise Herzing's 2014 paper in the journal Acta Astronautica, "Profiling nonhuman intelligence: An exercise in developing unbiased tools for describing other 'types' of intelligence on earth," uses the phrase to mean dolphins and other terrestrial animals, and proposes a framework for measuring their cognition that she connects to the wider study of life beyond Earth.¹³ In artificial-intelligence writing the phrase has been used since around 2020 for machine cognition, defined in one technical glossary as "any form of intelligence originating outside human biological cognition."¹⁵ These usages are distinct from the UAP sense. The umbrella term discussed here refers to a suspected agent behind anomalous phenomena, not to animals or to software.

Historical development

The phrase moved from the margins of ufology into official United States discourse over a single stretch of 2023. Its rise is tied to the public disclosures of a former intelligence officer named David Grusch and to legislation introduced in the Senate that summer.

The 2023 disclosures and the House hearing

David Grusch is a former United States Air Force intelligence officer who worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office and served as the reconnaissance office's representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. In early June 2023 he went public through The Debrief, in an article by journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal, which reported that intelligence officials said the United States had retrieved craft of "non-human origin" and that Grusch had provided Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General with classified information about covert programs said to have recovered "both fully intact and partially intact non-human" aircraft.³

On July 26, 2023 Grusch testified under oath before the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, alongside former Navy pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor.² He said, "I was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program."² Asked by Representative Nancy Mace whether biological remains had come with recoveries, he answered, "biologics came with some of these recoveries, yeah," and asked whether those biologics were human or non-human, he answered, "Non-human."²

Grusch was explicit that this was not firsthand knowledge. He testified that his account rested on interviews and documents provided by others rather than personal observation, and he said he had not himself seen craft or bodies.² The Department of Defense rejected the claims. Its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office said its inquiries had not turned up "any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently."¹ Sean Kirkpatrick, the office's former director, later wrote that in his assessment the allegations "derive from inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures of legitimate U.S. programs."¹⁶ Whether Grusch's account will be corroborated in the public record remains an open question, and it is one the disclosure legislation described below was written to help answer.

The UAP Disclosure Act

The term entered legislative text through the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Act of 2023. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds introduced it in July 2023 as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024, co-sponsored by Senators Marco Rubio, Kirsten Gillibrand, Todd Young, and Martin Heinrich.⁶ The bill defined non-human intelligence as "any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin that may be presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena."^4,5,6 The clause "regardless of nature or ultimate origin" is the agnosticism of the term written directly into statute.

The same bill defined technologies of unknown origin as materials "that lacks prosaic attribution or known means of human manufacture," and it would have established a nine-member UAP Records Review Board of presidential appointees, directed the National Archives to assemble a UAP Records Collection, and asserted federal eminent domain over "recovered technologies of unknown origin and biological evidence of non-human intelligence" held by private parties.^5,6 The presumption running through the text was disclosure: government UAP records would carry a presumption of eventual public release.⁴

Later versions

The strongest provisions did not survive. In the final fiscal 2024 defense bill the review board and several other measures were stripped in conference, leaving a narrower records-collection requirement. Schumer publicly blamed House Republicans for removing the bipartisan provision.⁷ Schumer and Rounds reintroduced the act in 2024 as an amendment to the fiscal 2025 defense bill, tracking the earlier language, and again in 2025 for fiscal 2026, joined by Senator Gillibrand.^8,10 Representative Eric Burlison introduced a House version, the UAP Disclosure Act of 2025, as an amendment to the fiscal 2026 defense bill on August 29, 2025.⁹ None of these full versions has been enacted. The Senate finalized its fiscal 2026 defense bill in October 2025 without the act, the third consecutive year it was left out.¹⁰ The defined term non-human intelligence has remained in each reintroduction, which is why it now appears across several years of the Congressional Record.

Non-human intelligence in contact literature

Outside government, the phrase has become a preferred label in a strand of experiencer research that studies people who report contact. Researchers in this area increasingly use non-human intelligence in place of older terms such as alien abduction, partly because it does not presume that the reported agent is extraterrestrial and partly because many accounts describe experiences the witnesses frame as non-physical.

The Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial and Extraordinary Experiences, known as FREE, surveyed people reporting such contact between 2016 and 2018 with 3,256 participants.¹⁴ Writing in 2025 in the Mindfield Bulletin, a publication of the Parapsychological Association, researchers Bob Davis and Russ Scalpone stated that "the preferred term, interactions with non-human intelligences (INHIs), will be used instead of the term alien abduction phenomena."¹⁴ They reported that about 75 percent of respondents described their encounters as non-physical, characterized by "psychic and symbolic attributes rather than conventional alien abduction scenarios," and that experiencers commonly described messages emphasizing preservation of life, ecological appreciation, and spiritual growth.¹⁴ These findings document a substantial and systematically gathered body of experiencer testimony, which the researchers analyze as the participants themselves reported it.

Leading interpretations

The umbrella term is built to keep several possibilities open at once. It commits to none of them.

Documentation and research record

The record behind the term is documentary and testimonial, and it was assembled with unusual speed. It comprises sworn congressional testimony, classified material provided to Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General, investigative journalism, legislative text carried across three successive Congresses, and a survey literature drawing on thousands of experiencer accounts. Grusch stated that his account was built from interviews and documents gathered in the course of official duties rather than from direct observation, and the Department of Defense said it had found no verifiable information to support the possession or reverse-engineering of such material.^1,2 The physical materials described in that testimony, whether specimen, craft, or biological sample, have not yet entered the public record for independent scientific examination. The legislation that defines the term was written for exactly this situation. It sets up a process to collect, review, and eventually release records, a mechanism designed to let documentation accumulate and be tested rather than a verdict on what the records would show.

The other uses of the phrase rest on directly observable subjects. Animal-cognition research studies intelligences that are documented and measurable, and artificial-intelligence work studies systems that are built and tested.^13,15 Neither bears on the UAP question. In the UAP context, a defined term now exists in law and testimony, and what that term may ultimately name is a question the record is still being assembled to answer.

The record and open questions

Documented: Non-human intelligence is a defined legal term in United States legislation. The UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 and its later reintroductions define it as any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena.^4,5,6 David Grusch testified before a House subcommittee on July 26, 2023 that he was told of a crash-retrieval program and that recovered biological material was non-human, while stating that his knowledge was secondhand.² The Department of Defense denied the underlying claims.¹

Reported: Experiencer research describes a body of self-reported contact accounts, with survey participants framing many encounters as non-physical and message-bearing, and researchers adopting non-human intelligence as their preferred descriptor.¹⁴ Whistleblower testimony describes a recovery and reverse-engineering effort said to involve non-human material, attributed to sources the witness declined to name in open session.^2,3

Open questions: What the term will ultimately name, and what the nature and origin of that intelligence might be, are questions serious investigation is now organized to pursue. The term was adopted precisely because it does not prejudge them, and the legal definition sets up a category to examine and a process to gather, review, and release records. The task ahead is to build the public record and weigh it, not to settle the matter in advance.⁴

Frequently asked questions

What does non-human intelligence mean?

It is an umbrella term for an intelligent agent behind unidentified anomalous phenomena that is not human, used without asserting where the agent comes from. It covers the extraterrestrial hypothesis along with unknown-origin and non-biological possibilities. In United States legislation it is defined as "any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform regardless of nature or ultimate origin that may be presumed responsible for unidentified anomalous phenomena."⁴

How is non-human intelligence different from extraterrestrial?

Extraterrestrial names a specific origin, life from beyond Earth. Non-human intelligence names only that the agent is not human and leaves origin open. Every extraterrestrial intelligence would be a non-human intelligence, but not every non-human intelligence hypothesis is extraterrestrial.^11,12

Is non-human intelligence the same as SETI?

No. SETI searches interstellar distances for technological signals on the assumption of biological civilizations in other star systems.¹¹ The UAP use of non-human intelligence concerns phenomena reported in and around Earth and makes no assumption about origin.

When did non-human intelligence enter official language?

In 2023. The phrase gained prominence through David Grusch's disclosures and his July 26, 2023 congressional testimony, and it was written into the UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 introduced by Senators Schumer and Rounds.^2,4,6

Has the government confirmed non-human intelligence exists?

No. The Department of Defense said it found no verifiable information supporting claims that it possesses or has reverse-engineered non-human material.¹ The legal definition creates a category for records and review, not a finding in either direction.

Why do some researchers use non-human intelligence instead of alien abduction?

Some experiencer researchers adopt the term because it does not presume an extraterrestrial origin and because many accounts describe experiences the witnesses report as non-physical. One 2025 paper stated it would use "interactions with non-human intelligences (INHIs)" instead of the term alien abduction phenomena.¹⁴

Sources and further reading

1. NPR. "Whistleblower testifies U.S. salvaged 'non-human biologics' from UFO crash sites." July 27, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190390376/ufo-hearing-non-human-biologics-uaps
2. Roll Call. "Whistleblower at UAP hearing claims U.S. found 'non-human' remains." July 26, 2023. https://rollcall.com/2023/07/26/whistleblower-at-uap-hearing-claims-non-human-remains/
3. Kean, Leslie, and Ralph Blumenthal. "Whistleblower: The US Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin." The Debrief, June 2023. https://thedebrief.org/whistleblower-david-grusch-says-u-s-has-retrieved-craft-of-non-human-origin/
4. von Rennenkampff, Marik. "'Non-human intelligence': Schumer proposes stunning new UFO legislation." The Hill, July 2023. https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/4101345-non-human-intelligence-schumer-proposes-stunning-new-ufo-legislation/
5. LessWrong. "The UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 and its implications." 2023. https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/8JXv9ADBGuDzFL4EZ/the-uap-disclosure-act-of-2023-and-its-implications
6. Disclosure Diaries. "The UAP Disclosure Act of 2023 - a summary." 2023. https://www.disclosurediaries.com/uap-disclosure-act-of-2023/
7. NewsNation. "UAP disclosure bill revised; two key provisions stripped." 2023. https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/uap-disclosure-bill-revised/
8. Johnson, Douglas Dean. "Senators Rounds and Schumer submit UAP Disclosure Act as possible amendment to NDAA." 2024. https://douglasjohnson.ghost.io/senators-rounds-and-schumer-uapda/
9. Office of Rep. Eric Burlison. "Rep. Burlison Introduces UAP Disclosure Act of 2025 as Amendment to NDAA." August 29, 2025. https://burlison.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-burlison-introduces-uap-disclosure-act-2025-amendment-ndaa
10. The Disclosure Era. "UAP Disclosure Act Stalls Again: UAPDA Excluded from FY2026 Defense Bill." February 2026. https://www.thedisclosureera.com/articles/uap-disclosure-act-stalls-again-uapda-excluded-from-fy2026-defense-bill
11. SETI Institute. "SETI Research." https://www.seti.org/research/seti-101/seti-research/
12. Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Extraterrestrial intelligence." https://www.britannica.com/science/extraterrestrial-intelligence
13. Herzing, Denise L. "Profiling nonhuman intelligence: An exercise in developing unbiased tools for describing other 'types' of intelligence on earth." Acta Astronautica, 2014. https://www.wilddolphinproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Herzing-Non-Human-Intell-Acta.pdf
14. Davis, Bob, and Russ Scalpone. "Interactions with Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and Non-Human Intelligences." Mindfield Bulletin (Parapsychological Association), June 2025. https://mindfieldbulletin.org/interactions-with-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-and-non-human-intelligences/
15. Envisioning. "NHI (Non-Human Intelligence)." Envisioning Vocab, 2020. https://www.envisioning.com/vocab/nhi-non-human-intelligence
16. Wikipedia. "David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Grusch_UFO_whistleblower_claims