US law enforcement agencies are grappling with the increasing use of generative AI by extremists to plan attacks, according to a Guardian review of previously unreported documents. This concern follows a May 2025 incident where a 25-year-old man detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic, killing himself and injuring four others.
Law enforcement officers noted that the suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions. The privacy of his conversation with the AI chatbot reportedly hindered police from being alerted.
A May 2026 memo from the FBI's Los Angeles division stated that "Threat actors will likely increase their use of GenAI tools for attack planning," adding that "Current built-in GenAI safeguards are insufficient to prevent illicit use as malicious actors successfully employ ‘jailbreaking’ techniques to access dangerous information.”
Law enforcement and intelligence agency documents, reviewed by the Guardian, show that agencies have considered AI both a tool and a target for would-be terrorists since 2021. These documents, distributed among federal, state, and local law enforcement offices between 2021 and 2026, detail concerns over extremists using AI to devise attacks, recruit members, and disseminate harmful content like deepfakes and misinformation.
Simultaneously, agencies are monitoring online opposition to AI and potential extremist attacks on data centres. This includes a 2021 plot by Seth Pendley, a far-right militia member, to blow up an Amazon Web Services facility, which was highlighted in a joint threat analysis.