The probe of a 2025 bombing outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic reveals an example of how U.S. law enforcement is thinking about artificial intelligence and terrorism.
Investigators say the suspect in the case used a chatbot to seek bomb-making instructions, exposing a gap in platform safeguards and in the usual ways authorities detect threats before violence occurs.
Here's what to know
A 25-year-old man is believed to have set off a car bomb outside the California clinic in May 2025, killing himself and injuring four other people.
A previously unreported law enforcement document obtained by the Guardian indicated that the man had sought bomb-making instructions using an unnamed generative AI tool.
The document also indicated that the platform had not caught or flagged the request involving violent plans and that the private nature of the AI exchange made it harder for authorities to get any advance warning.
Across more than 80 federal, state, and local documents from 2021 to 2026, the Guardian found a growing concern across law enforcement agencies about potential connections between AI and extremist activity.
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Those records point to at least two categories of risk: extremists using AI to organize attacks, recruit supporters, or produce harmful material, and extremists targeting the data centers and other infrastructure that AI depends on.
More background
Some of these concerns predate the rise of generative AI, with sensitive locations such as reproductive health care centers and technological infrastructure such as digital information systems common targets for a range of extremist activity.
The Guardian reported that a 2021 bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the National Counterterrorism Center, for example, highlighted the plot by Seth Pendley, a Jan. 6 rioter and far-right militia member, to attack an Amazon Web Services site.
"Pendley believed a successful attack on the Amazon facility would disrupt 70 percent of Internet service, expose perceived abuses of power, and lead to revolution," the bulletin said. Pendley pleaded guilty and received a 10-year prison sentence in 2021.
With ChatGPT's 2022 launch, agencies began looking at how newer AI tools might magnify existing dangers.
The documents cited concerns including deepfakes, election misinformation, child sexual abuse material, and harmful propaganda. One 2025 memo from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center said the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children logged more than 7,000 child exploitation reports tied to generative AI from 2023 to 2025.
Agencies have also monitored opposition to data centers. But opponents of this energy-, water-, and land-intensive infrastructure have also raised concerns that such monitoring could extend to invasive law enforcement surveillance of peaceful protesters.
What's being done?
In one FBI public safety awareness report, the bureau urged agencies to build relationships with AI companies to create clearer "reporting avenues" when dangerous activity appears. DHS also said it regularly shares intelligence on evolving extremist threats with state and local partners.
Police departments may also be making internal adjustments.
A 2025 NYPD memo cited by the Guardian said agencies need to keep pace with AI advances to respond to "increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, other AI-enabled crime, and advanced malign influence campaigns."
Other law enforcement memos reviewed by the outlet warned about AI-generated hoaxes targeting police, including fake images and videos that could trigger unnecessary armed responses.
Agencies are pushing for stronger safeguards and better monitoring, while civil liberties advocates warn against treating broad public criticism of AI or data centers as extremism. Better AI guardrails could help protect clinics, children, and communities, but overly broad surveillance could also sweep in ordinary residents speaking at public hearings.
Where can I learn more?
This related reporting shows how AI can contribute to real-world harm and how officials are responding:
• Investigators found AI chatbots helped teen users plan violent acts, deepening fears about weak safeguards.
• Families said AI-fueled delusions pulled loved ones deeper into paranoia and dangerous behavior.
• At an international summit, political leaders and tech execs warned AI could magnify social harms.
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