‘Anti-tech extremism’: The government is monitoring AI criticism nationwide, says report
Being critical of AI is far from a fringe position in the United States. Recent polling shows that half of U.S. adults feel more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, and among Gen Z specifically, excitement and hope around AI are falling while anger over the tech increases, with 42% of Gen Zers saying AI makes them anxious. But those increasingly common AI-critical sentiments are reportedly raising flags with the federal government. More than a thousand pages of unpublished reports acquired by WIRED show a worrying trend across America: federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are targeting “anti-technology extremists.” Counterterrorism under Trump Earlier this month, President Donald Trump and counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka shared the federal government’s current counterterrorism strategy. In it, Gorka laid out what he claims are the biggest terrorist threats to the U.S., naming “violent left-wing extremists, including anarchists and anti-fascists” as one of the “three major types of terror groups” facing America. Trump’s foreword to the strategy concluded with his message to domestic terrorists: “We will find you and we will kill you.” According to the unpublished reports detailed by WIRED, anti-tech extremism is subject to the same surveillance and potential criminalization laid out in that strategy. One such report, sourced from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau, introduces the term “anti-tech violent extremist” in the context of widespread AI adoption. “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,” the report reads. Some of the acquired documents come from fusion centers, which serve as links between federal intelligence agencies and state and local law enforcement department