The presentation from David Wells, Global Security Consultant and Honorary Research Associate at Swansea University’s Cyber Threats Research Centre, discusses the potential impacts of generative AI on terrorism.

It covers what has been seen so far, potential use cases for terrorists, and the broad environmental impacts of generative AI. David concludes with some recommendations, emphasizing the need for early regulation and cross-sectoral collaboration.

Takeaways

• Generative AI has been used by terrorist groups for experimentation and propaganda creation, but it remains a small percentage of overall terrorist content.
• Potential use cases for terrorists include optimizing propaganda creation, multi-language capability, and shortcutting target research.
• Generative AI has broad environmental impacts, including polluting the information environment, economic impacts, and exacerbating existing challenges like polarization and authoritarian control.
• Early regulation and cross-sectoral collaboration are necessary to address the challenges posed by generative AI in counterterrorism efforts.

Sound Bites

• “What we’ve seen so far: experimentation and use by terrorist groups from across the ideological divide.”
• “Potential use cases: optimizing propaganda creation, multi-language capability, and shortcutting target research.”
• “Broad environmental impacts: polluting the information environment, economic impacts, and exacerbating existing challenges.”

Chapters

00:00.  Introduction and Overview
01:20.  What We’ve Seen So Far
04:04.  Use Cases for Terrorists and Violent Extremists
09:04.  New Capabilities
11:13.  Broad Environmental Impacts
13:04.  Recommendations

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