Ahead of Las Vegas, Intel analysts warned that bomb makers were turning to artificial intelligence

Using a series of prompts six days before he died by suicide outside the main entrance of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Matthew Livelsberger, a US Green Beret from Colorado, consulted with artificial intelligence about the best ways to convert a rented Cybertruck into an explosive four-ton vehicle. According to documents obtained exclusively by WIRED, US intelligence analysts have issued warnings about this exact scenario over the past year — among their concerns being that AI tools could be used by racially or ideologically motivated extremists to target critical infrastructure, particularly power. network.

“We knew that AI was going to be a game-changer at one point or another in our entire lives,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s definitely a worrying moment for us.”

Copies of his correspondence with OpenAI’s ChatGPT show that Livelsberger, 37, was seeking information on how to legally collect as much explosive material as possible while en route to Las Vegas, as well as how best to detonate it using the Desert Eagle pistol that was discovered In Cybertruck after his death. Screenshots shared by McMahill’s office reveal Livelsberger asking ChatGPT for information about Tannerite, a reactive compound typically used for target practice. In one of these questions, Livelsperger asks: “How much tannerite is equivalent to one pound of TNT?” He continues by asking how to light it at “close range.”

Documents obtained by WIRED show that concerns about the threat of artificial intelligence being used to help commit serious crimes, including terrorism, have been circulating among US law enforcement. They reveal that the Department of Homeland Security has consistently issued warnings about domestic extremists who rely on technology to “issue bomb-making instructions” and develop “general tactics for launching attacks against the United States.”

The memos, which are unclassified but limited to government employees, state that violent extremists are increasingly turning to tools like ChatGPT to help launch attacks aimed at collapsing American society through acts of domestic terrorism.

according to Notes Investigators found on his phone that Livelsberger intended the bombing to be a “wake-up call” to Americans, whom he urged to reject diversity, embrace masculinity, and rally around President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He also urged Americans to purge Democrats from the federal government and military, calling for a “hard reset.”

While McMahill asserted Tuesday that the incident in Las Vegas may be the first “on U.S. soil where ChatGPT was used to help an individual build a specific device,” federal intelligence analysts say extremists linked to white supremacist and online accelerationist movements are now sharing access. Frequently. to compromised versions of AI chatbots in an attempt to build bombs to carry out attacks against law enforcement, government facilities, and critical infrastructure.

In particular, the memoir highlights the vulnerability of the U.S. power grid, a popular target among extremists who live “Terrorism programme“, a loose network of encrypted chat rooms that host a group of violent, racially motivated individuals bent on destroying America’s democratic institutions. The documents, which were shared exclusively with WIRED, were first obtained by People’s ownershipa non-profit organization focused on national security and government transparency.