‘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 artificial intelligence 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 More than a thousand pages of unpublished reports acquired by Wired show a worrying trend across America: Federal intelligence agencies and domestic law enforcement are targeting “anti-technology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 The President

Earlier this month, President Donald The President 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.

The President’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According to the unpublished reports detailed by Wired, anti-tech extremism is subject to the same surveillance and potential criminalization laid out in that strategy.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 departments. These fusion centers are reportedly on the lookout for threats to data centers, an especially controversial aspect of the AI boom.

Though 7 in 10 Americans oppose the local construction of data centers, The President has gone so far as issuing an executive order to fast-track their development.

A report from one western Pennsylvania fusion center claimed that “adversarial actors, including state-sponsored entities, criminal groups, and extremists, such as homegrown violent extremists or environmental extremists, may target U.S. data centers.”

It continued: “These actors could also exploit the strategic importance of data centers to the U.S. economy, using them for activities like cryptocurrency mining or leveraging third-party entities, such as front companies, to gain access to U.S. data and infrastructure.”

A dangerously broad category

Though the documents purport to be targeting anti-tech “extremism,” there’s a fine line between extremism and peaceful protest—and some reports suggest that intelligence agencies could conflate the two.

For example, a report from the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center claimed that extremists are engaging in preoperational planning to target data centers based on observed behaviors. But in its breakdown of suspicious activity reporting (SAR) indicators, the flagged behaviors could just as easily be carried out by peaceful protestors, including “expressed/implied threat,” “observation/surveillance,” “photography,” “testing/probing of security,” and “attempted intrusion.”

Additionally, fusion centers are reportedly keeping tabs on tech-critical protests and civic activities. That includes reporting on local budget meetings and school board meetings, along with protests like the “Tesla Takedown” movement, which critiques Elon Musk’s outsize influence on the U.S. government.

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