Terrorist groups are using every major AI chatbot for attack planning and weapons development

ISIS has reportedly been offering prompt engineering and jailbreak training since 2023 and has trained Boko Haram commanders in Nigeria on how to bypass AI safety filters.

Boko Haram now uses popular AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Meta AI, and DeepSeek, and both of its factions have set up dedicated AI units, according to a new study by researcher Antonia Jülich of the Cambridge Programme on AI Science & Policy (CASP). Jülich conducted 57 interviews with 27 former members of the group.

The group uses AI for attack planning, building more powerful explosive devices, weapons maintenance, and operational security, the study found. ISIS liaisons trained commanders on how to bypass safety filters. Both Boko Haram factions set up their own dedicated AI units. According to Jülich, they "assembled the top people in a room and used a projector to show how it works on a big screen."

In one particularly wild case, the ISWAP faction used AI to replicate motorcycle jumping techniques from a movie so fighters could clear trenches. Eighteen fighters died during training. Eight made the jump.

But of course, it doesn't stop at motorcycle stunts. "Former members described strong enthusiasm for AI, and some said the group had previously considered mass-casualty weapons," Juelich writes. "Though Boko Haram's use of AI remains conventional, this should be a warning to take seriously the risk of terrorists pursuing AI assistance for chemical and biological weapons."

Researchers as well as AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic have long warned that AI models could make dangerous knowledge more accessible. But voluntary self-regulation apparently isn't cutting it, as the study found that safety filters failed to reliably prevent misuse. That may just be the nature of large language models: Anthropic recently admitted that jailbreaks will likely never be fully eliminated.

Researchers also point out that chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude, while they've grabbed most of the public's attention, aren't the real concern, because they mostly just make existing knowledge easier to find rather than generating anything new. The bigger worry is the potential misuse of more specialized AI systems in the life sciences.