Subcommittee Chairman Pfluger Requests GAO Review of Threats Posed by AI-Enabled Terrorism

Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence Chairman August Pfluger sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting a comprehensive review of how violent extremists and malicious actors weaponize emerging technologies and applications. In the letter, Pfluger raises concerns that adversaries are increasingly exploiting advanced AI tools to generate propaganda, spread misinformation, and accelerate online radicalization at scale and speed. Generative artificial intelligence enables extremists to produce targeted propaganda and recruitment materials at minimal costs. Agentic artificial intelligence amplifies these efforts by executing harmful behaviors with minimal human involvement. Pfluger writes that 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. 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 concludes that the use of generative artificial intelligence and agentic artificial intelligence by violent extremists and other illicit actors poses a broad and evolving national security threat. The speed, scale, and adaptability these technologies enable will challenge the federal government's ability to detect, respond to, and deter terrorist activities. The nature and scope of the challenges associated with countering these AI-enabled threats are not well understood.