U.S. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) has requested the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to perform a comprehensive review of how foreign terrorists use emerging technologies against the United States.
In a letter to the GAO, Pfluger, the chair of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, raised concerns that foreign actors are increasingly using advanced AI tools to generate propaganda, spread misinformation and accelerate online radicalization. He asked the agency to review how violent extremists and malicious actors weaponize generative AI to produce targeted propaganda and recruitment materials at minimal costs, as well as using agentic AI to execute harmful behaviors with minimal human involvement.
“As artificial intelligence increasingly becomes a part of the everyday lives of Americans, so too do malicious actors seek to exploit emerging AI technologies and applications to pursue harmful, even deadly, agendas…,” Pfluger said in his letter. “Violent extremists and other illicit actors—including but not limited to insiders who pose threats and malicious cyber actors—will inevitably seek inventive ways to exploit these emerging technologies to support a wide range of terrorist tactics and other criminal activities.”
Pfluger asked the GAO to ensure that federal agencies are effectively combating the use of GenAI and AAI by violent extremists and other illicit actors by determining what is known about how the use of AI by violent extremists and other illicit actors has changed their ability to conduct terrorist activities, as well as whether the use of AI by violent extremists and other illicit actors changed federal law enforcement and intelligence agency efforts to deter or prevent terrorist activities, and how federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies work with technology companies to detect, disrupt, and limit the use of AI by violent extremists and other illicit actors to conduct terrorist activities.