FBI Warns GenAI Will Fuel More Attack Plots After 1 Car Bomb Case
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 14
FBI Warns GenAI Will Fuel More Attack Plots After 1 Car Bomb Case
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 14
Summary
An FBI memo circulated in May 2026 said threat actors will likely increase their use of generative AI for attack planning, warning current safeguards are too weak to stop malicious users.
A 25-year-old man who bombed a Palm Springs fertility clinic in May 2025 used an unnamed GenAI tool to obtain bomb-making instructions, according to a previously unreported law-enforcement document.
More than 80 federal, state and local documents reviewed by the Guardian show agencies have tracked AI since 2021 as both a tool for extremists and a target, including fears over deepfakes, propaganda, CSAM and private chatbot use evading police tripwires.
Those records also show widening surveillance of anti-datacenter sentiment, from threats against AI facilities to monitoring public hearings and protests—raising concerns that mainstream, nonviolent opposition to AI infrastructure could be swept into extremism tracking.