FBI and DHS Label AI Backlash as Anti-Tech Violent Extremism Threat

The Feds and Law Enforcement Are Worried AI Backlash Could Turn Into â€~Anti-Tech Violent Extremism’

The threat of domestic terrorism could give Trump’s AI-friendly administration a convenient reason to keep tabs on anti-AI movements and data center protests. U.S. law enforcement agencies have taken notice of the growing backlash to AI and in response are shifting their sights to what they are calling “anti-technology extremists.â€Â This shift is documented in over 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and fusion centers across the country obtained by Wired. Fusion centers are intelligence-sharing hubs where federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies work together to collect, analyze, and share information. According to a new WIRED report, these agencies have produced a growing number of reports that appear to connect anti-AI sentiment to potential domestic terrorism threats. "The chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent AI technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City,†reads one report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau. WIRED notes that the term “anti-tech violent extremism†does not appear in any public domestic extremism reports from DHS or the FBI, suggesting that this is a relatively new category. The backdrop to all of this is President Donald Trump’s pro-business, pro-AI agenda colliding with growing public resentment toward the technology. So far, the Trump administration has taken a largely hands-off approach to regulating AI and has often given the industry what it wants. In December, Trump signed an executive order aimed at curbing what his administration described as burdensome state AI regulations in the name of national and economic security. Just this month, he also backed out of signing an executive order that would have created a voluntary framework for AI companies to give the federal government access to frontier AI models up to 90 days before their wider release to “strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.â€Â At the same time, his administration has taken a much tougher stance toward some forms of political dissent. Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 calls for a national strategy directing the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to investigate and prosecute political violence with a focus on groups tied to views the memo describes as “anti-Americanism†and “anti-capitalism.†Meanwhile, Trump’s counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka released a public counterterrorism strategy this month that groups violent left-wing extremists alongside narcoterrorists, and legacy Islamist terrorists as the top major threats against the U.S. That sets the stage for law enforcement to treat some anti-AI organizing as a potential threat at a time when skepticism of the technology is only growing. Even Pope Leo XIV entered the debate this week with his first encyclical, calling for AI to be “disarmed." A broad range of activity is being grouped together under this emerging anti-tech extremism umbrella, according to WIRED. On one end, the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau highlighted the arrest and trial of Ziz LaSota, the alleged leader of a group with extreme views about AI that has been linked to multiple murders. On the other end, several fusion centers are keeping tabs on public meetings like town halls and budget committee meetings where residents are showing up to complain about data centers being built in their neighborhoods. "The FBI investigates individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security. We have no additional comment," the Bureau told Gizmodo in an emailed statement. The DHS and New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau did not immediatly respond to requests for comment.

Anti-AI activism might land you on a law enforcement watchlist

Listed "suspicious activities" related to this new category of extremism include the act of monitoring AI data centers. Law enforcement agencies have started monitoring for what they're calling "anti-tech violent extremism." According to a new report released today, internal memos from the FBI, DHS, and local fusion centers make reference to purported dangers posed by growing opposition to the rapidly expanding AI sector and the data centers that power it, with at least one Regional Intelligence Center identifying activities like photographing a data center as suspicious activity that can identify "adversarial actors."