aceTool and target: US law enforcement grapple with AI-enabled terrorism and anti-tech extremism
In May 2025, a 25-year-old man detonated a car bomb outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic, killing himself and injuring four others. For many, it was a wake-up call about the threats to reproductive care facilities. For the FBI, though, it was also a sign of what the agency had feared for years: bad actors were using generative AI to plan and execute terror plots. The suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions, law enforcement officers wrote in a p…
In brief
The Guardian reviewed more than 80 law enforcement and intelligence documents from 2021 to 2026 showing that agencies treat AI as both a tool and a target of would-be terrorists. An FBI Los Angeles memo from May 2026 says the suspect in the May 2025 Palm Springs fertility clinic car bombing used a generative AI tool that failed to flag a request for bomb-making instructions.
The findings matter because officers describe present-day, concrete harms from AI rather than the hypothetical doomsday scenarios often voiced by AI executives. What remains uncertain is how widely AI is actually used in attacks, since the evidence is internal memos and the FBI did not answer detailed questions, and how monitoring of anti-datacenter sentiment will affect lawful protest.
Main points
- The FBI memo said the privacy of the suspect's chatbot conversation hindered police from being alerted that someone was looking up how to make a bomb.
- The documents were obtained by the transparency non-profit Property of the People and circulated among DHS, the FBI, the NYPD and other offices between 2021 and 2026.
- Agencies monitor social media and forums for posts vowing to destroy datacenters, including a 2025 Philadelphia police bulletin quoting a white supremacist account.
- A 2021 bulletin highlighted Seth Pendley's plot to blow up an Amazon Web Services facility; he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
- DHS assessed that malicious actors may use AI for cyber-enabled activity, fraud and violent extremist propaganda.
The problem
Law enforcement memos say generative AI safeguards fail to stop bomb-making queries, while extremists also threaten datacenters, prompting monitoring that may spill over into surveillance of non-violent protest.
The rundown
The documents sort law enforcement concern into two categories: extremists using generative AI to plot attacks or promote ideology, and extremists targeting the technology infrastructure that underpins society. The second strand has a long history in far-right movements that hoped attacks on tech facilities would cause societal collapse.
Officers discussed how AI could produce deepfakes, election misinformation and child sexual abuse material, how people seeking weapons information could use AI to evade police detection, and how police can adopt AI tools such as social media monitoring while managing public concern.
Since the generative AI boom, agencies more often flagged anti-tech and anti-datacenter sentiment. Fusion centers cited forum posts about killing AI company CEOs and local officials, and a March Michigan demonstration involving people allegedly linked to a white supremacist group was tracked.
Sources
- JournalismThe Guardian2026-10-14
AI overlords say they want to democratise their technology. Here’s how | Richard Wilson and Clara Long
The Guardian
The eyes have it: Reform politician’s ‘smart glasses’ prompt calls for ban in Westminster
The Guardian
Data science, artificial intelligence and the third wave of digital era governance
Public Policy and Administration
The debate