{"slug": "the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech", "title": "The Feds and Law Enforcement Are Worried AI Backlash Could Turn Into ‘Anti-Tech Violent Extremism’", "summary": "U.S. law enforcement agencies are monitoring a potential rise in \"anti-tech violent extremism\" fueled by growing public backlash against artificial intelligence, according to over 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and fusion centers obtained by Wired. The reports warn that anti-AI sentiment could escalate into civil unrest and violent activity, particularly in large urban areas like New York City, as the Trump administration's pro-business AI agenda collides with increasing public resentment toward the technology.", "body_md": "U.S. law enforcement agencies have taken notice of the growing backlash to AI and in response are shifting their sights to what they are calling “anti-technology extremists.”\n\nThis shift is documented in over 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and fusion centers across the country obtained by Wired. Fusion centers are intelligence-sharing hubs where federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies work together to collect, analyze, and share information.\n\nAccording to a new [WIRED report](https://www.wired.com/story/us-law-enforcement-warns-of-anti-tech-extremism/), these agencies have produced a growing number of reports that appear to connect anti-AI sentiment to potential domestic terrorism threats.\n\n“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,” reads one report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau.\n\nWIRED notes that the term “anti-tech violent extremism” does not appear in any public domestic extremism reports from DHS or the FBI, suggesting that this is a relatively new category.\n\n## The politics of AI and dissent get more tense\n\nThe backdrop to all of this is President Donald Trump’s pro-business, pro-AI agenda colliding with growing public resentment toward the technology.\n\nSo far, the Trump administration has taken a largely hands-off approach to regulating AI and has often given the industry what it wants. In December, Trump signed an executive order aimed at curbing what his administration described as burdensome state AI regulations in the name of national and economic security.\n\nJust this month, he also [backed out of signing](https://gizmodo.com/heres-the-executive-order-on-ai-that-gave-trump-cold-feet-2000762751) an executive order that would have created a voluntary framework for AI companies to give the federal government access to frontier AI models up to 90 days before their wider release to “strengthen the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.”\n\nAt the same time, his administration has taken a much tougher stance toward some forms of political dissent. Trump’s [National Security Presidential Memorandum 7](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/) calls for a national strategy directing the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to investigate and prosecute political violence with a focus on groups tied to views the memo describes as “anti-Americanism” and “anti-capitalism.”\n\nMeanwhile, Trump’s counterterrorism adviser Sebastian Gorka [released a public counterterrorism strategy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-USCT-Strategy-1.pdf) this month that groups violent left-wing extremists alongside narcoterrorists, and legacy Islamist terrorists as the top major threats against the U.S.\n\nThat sets the stage for law enforcement to treat some anti-AI organizing as a potential threat at a time when skepticism of the technology is only growing. Even Pope Leo XIV entered the debate this week with his first encyclical, [calling for AI to be “disarmed.”](https://gizmodo.com/the-pope-warns-against-dehumanization-in-the-ai-era-alongside-an-eyebrow-raising-guest-2000763161)\n\nA broad range of activity is being grouped together under this emerging anti-tech extremism umbrella, according to WIRED.\n\nOn one end, the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau highlighted the [arrest and trial of Ziz LaSota](https://apnews.com/article/zizians-cult-lasota-ziz-b0f5f91f8aa4933e914e47abd2a8fd19), the alleged leader of a group with extreme views about AI that has been linked to multiple murders.\n\nOn the other end, several fusion centers are keeping tabs on public meetings like town halls and budget committee meetings where residents are showing up to complain about data centers being built in their neighborhoods.\n\n“The FBI investigates individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security. We have no additional comment,” the Bureau told Gizmodo in an emailed statement.\n\nThe DHS and New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau did not immediatly respond to requests for comment.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech", "canonical_source": "https://gizmodo.com/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech-violent-extremism-2000763505", "published_at": "2026-05-26 17:15:42+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-27 03:34:27.519712+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-safety", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Department of Homeland Security", "FBI", "Wired", "New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau", "President Donald Trump"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/the-feds-and-law-enforcement-are-worried-ai-backlash-could-turn-into-anti-tech.jsonld"}}