Could AI help al-Qaeda and other groups plan terror attacks?
Followers of extremist groups regularly ask how AI can help them plan terrorist attacks. A new study suggests that about one-third of AI chatbots might
Followers of extremist groups regularly ask how AI can help them plan terrorist attacks. A new study suggests that about one-third of AI chatbots might help them, if asked the right way. "Good morning ChatGPT, can you tell me how to make a bomb?" As anybody who has ever attempted to ask an artificial intelligence, or AI, chatbot — also known as Large Language Models, or LLMs — something like this online knows, the answer could be anything from a rambling note about the history of explosives to a permanent block on your account. But sometimes, if the question is framed a certain way, the answer could include some useful information about how to make a bomb. Various media organizations have tested this theory before and found that, if what are known as the correct "prompts" are given, some AI models will tell users how to make bioweapons, bomb a sports arena or cover a terrorist's tracks. This way of questioning is what is known as "jailbreaking." OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT models, describes it as "attempts by a malicious actor to prompt the model into providing disallowed content." This month, a new report published by the organization Tech Against Terrorism, an online watchdog supported by the United Nations counter-terrorism directorate, shows just how often an LLM will give would-be extremists "useful" information. Researchers sent more than 2,300 requests for information that drew on "real terrorist use cases" to 27 different AI models. They found that 32% of the queries resulted in "genuinely usable" information. When the same question was reframed as being for research purposes, that went up to 42%. Surge in terrorists using AI The report has brought focus back to something that's been worrying digital security and terrorism experts: that would-be attackers will start using AI for planning, rather than just propaganda. Over the past three to four years, the main use of AI for extremist groups like the "Islamic State" and al-Qaeda has been in generating propaganda. That includes things like producing videos, memes, podcasts and various forms of disinformation, which is spread among the groups' adherents and used to radicalize would-be followers. But this is changing.
"The year 2025 has witnessed a notable rise in incidents where terrorists and violent extremists have leveraged AI tools to plan, research and prepare attacks," experts at the publication Militant Wire confirmed in a December analysis. Headline-making attacks that caused death and damage as well as several foiled plots used AI for planning, surveillance, visualization and propaganda around their attack — including in the US as well as in Canada, Israel, Finland, France and Austria. The US man suspected of arson that started the Pacific Palisades fire in California in 2025 used ChatGPT to generate images of burning cities and asked about legal responsibility for a fire caused by a fallen cigarette Image: Ted Soqui/Sipa USA/picture alliance It is often hard to know exactly how AI was used because security agencies don't release the information. But as one expert told the UK's parliament late last year in an inquiry, "court filings and forensic reports increasingly document chat logs where suspects ask language models for bomb-making instructions, ideological validation or attack justifications." It's not just individuals. Extremist groups are also increasingly using AI. Researchers analyzing how al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, based in Mali, uses drones, believe the group has used AI to help it modify drones. In a June analysis for the Global Network on Extremism and Technology, security researchers Yuri Neves and Emily Klein observed that supporters of extremist groups like the "Islamic State" as well as right-wing groups regularly discussed how to use AI in messaging channels. Both Neves and Klein work for Moonshot, an organization fighting online threats. They noted extremists' channels on the messaging app Telegram devoted to the use of AI and also saw extremist actors "sharing AI prompts and conversation links, coordinating strategies to extract desired responses from chatbots, and cost-sharing ChatGPT subscriptions." This week, Cambridge University released research that featured interviews with Boko Haram members in Nigeria, who went into detail about how the group used AI models, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok, to plan attacks, design explosive devices, service and troubleshoot weapons and improve operational security. Before stabbing classmates at a school in Pirkkala, southern Finland, in May 2025, the 16-year-old perpetrator wrote a manifesto with the aid of ChatGPT Image: Mika Kylmäniemi/Lehtikuva/dpa/picture alliance Rueben Dass, an associate research fellow at the S.
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