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Tool and target: US law enforcement grapple with AI-enabled terrorism and anti-tech extremism

From the FBI to local police departments, US authorities are increasingly warning of would-be terrorists using chatbots to plan attacks and anti-AI extremist threats

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 previously unreported document reviewed by the Guardian. The privacy of his conversation with the AI chatbot hindered alerting police that someone was looking up how to make a bomb, according to the memo.

How extremists could use AI to devise attacks and recruit new members

How AI could be used to disseminate and produce everything from deepfakes to election misinformation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM)

How people seeking information on how to make weaponry or bombs could use AI to circumvent police detection

How to ensure that officers could take advantage of AI tools in policing, for things like social media monitoring, while managing public concern over the use of these tools

Monitoring social media for opposition to AI and potential extremist attacks on datacenters

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

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Why a decade of doomsday warnings failed to slow the AI race

From Stephen Hawking to Jacob Coxon’s viral Anthropic resignation, fears that AI could threaten humanity have shaken the industry without stopping its pursuit

Before an Anthropic researcher resigned and declared human extinction imminent last week, tech leaders and scientists had sounded the alarm about a superintelligent AI ending humanity for over a decade.

The development of artificial intelligence “could spell the end of the human race”, warned professor and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in 2014 – a little less than a decade before the public got its hands on the generative AI features of the original version of ChatGPT.

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© Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP

© Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP

© Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP

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More Anthropic researchers warn of AI’s perils but Musk dismisses ‘psyop’

Insiders at the firm fear tech’s advancement could cause human extinction, while others are calling their declarations of concern a ‘setup’

A day after a former researcher at Anthropic made an apocalyptic declaration about artificial intelligence, more researchers and staff members at the AI startup publicly agreed with him and posted their own dire warnings.

In response, Elon Musk and other conservative figures on X, formerly Twitter, called the chorus of concerns a “setup” and a “psyop”.

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© Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

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Apple unveils folding iPhone Duo as new CEO takes center stage

The passport-size iPhone Duo serves as the first big test for John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook last week

Apple has unveiled the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable phone and the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.

The nearly $2,000 device takes inspiration from iPads’ wide screens and combines them with the portability and camera features of iPhones. When opened, it is the company’s largest phone display and thinnest phone. The Duo opens and closes like a passport to double its screen size.

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© Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

© Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

© Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

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Bernie Sanders calls on Silicon Valley to ‘pause AI development’ in interest of humanity

Progressive US senator urges Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to ‘stop building machines that humans cannot control’

Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic executives to halt their development of artificial intelligence, warning that the US Senate will implement regulation if the companies continue deploying AI at their current pace.

In a new letter addressed to the CEOs of three of the country’s leading AI companies, Sanders said the capabilities of these AI models have reached a critical risk threshold and that the companies are losing control over the technology.

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© Photograph: John Oliva/Caller-Times/USA TODAY Network/Reuters Connect

© Photograph: John Oliva/Caller-Times/USA TODAY Network/Reuters Connect

© Photograph: John Oliva/Caller-Times/USA TODAY Network/Reuters Connect

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