# Boko Haram exploited US and Chinese AI chatbots for attacks, Cambridge study finds > Source: > Published: 2026-07-14 21:39:46+00:00 # Boko Haram exploited US and Chinese AI chatbots for attacks, Cambridge study finds Former fighters say AI helped with bomb-making, planning and propaganda, raising calls for US-China action on terrorist misuse of chatbots [Vincent Chow](/author/vincent-chow)in Washington Huddled in a room around a big screen, dozens of Boko Haram members listened intently as external consultants, whom they called “the white guys”, coached them on how to use leading artificial intelligence chatbots with laptops pre-installed with VPNs and encryption software. The workshop was one of several training sessions delivered by specialised AI “trainers”, likely members of the vast Islamic State network, to Boko Haram members in northeastern Nigeria sometime during 2023 or 2024, according to a former Boko Haram commander, who added that it was also the first time he saw the logo of US AI giant OpenAI. The account was one of many shared in a new research paper released on Friday by Cambridge University, which indicated that Boko Haram used both frontier American and Chinese AI tools to assist in bomb construction, attack planning and wider day-to-day operations throughout 2024 and as recently as mid-2025. Based on interviews with 27 former Boko Haram members conducted in northeast Nigeria over the past year, the researcher Antonia Juelich found that the group was using US chatbots including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, as well as Chinese company DeepSeek’s chatbot, as key operational tools as it engaged in its terrorism campaign. “This is very much a current national security problem,” Juelich told the South China Morning Post. “AI models are becoming much more capable, so the stakes are also much higher now.” The report comes as there are growing calls for the US and China, the two countries behind the leading chatbots, to urgently address the risks of AI misuse by non-state actors in their coming AI safety talks, particularly as terrorists have expressed enthusiasm for using AI to help develop mass-casualty weapons.