ISIS weaponizes AI for terrorism with digital news anchors and bots

ISIS is increasingly exploiting artificial intelligence to enhance its propaganda operations and potentially plan attacks, marking a dangerous evolution in the terrorist group’s digital capabilities. This development represents a significant shift from hypothetical concerns to active reality, with experts warning that AI tools could dramatically amplify the group’s ability to recruit followers and coordinate operations globally.

What you should know: ISIS has moved beyond basic AI experimentation to sophisticated applications that enhance both propaganda creation and operational planning.

• The group has deployed AI-generated news anchors to deliver propaganda content, including coverage of deadly attacks like the Moscow concert hall incident.
• ISIS supporters have weaponized popular Western media, such as manipulating Family Guy episodes to include Islamist messaging.
• Samuel Hunter, senior scientist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education Center, confirmed “we’ve moved from the hypothetical into reality on the use of AI by extremist groups.”

The propaganda machine: ISIS-affiliated groups are using generative AI to create and distribute content at unprecedented scale and speed.

• The Afghanistan-based ISIS-K has launched “News Harvest,” an AI-driven initiative producing propaganda clips narrated by artificial anchors.
• ISIS-K’s Voice of Khorasan magazine actively promotes AI awareness among supporters, despite some fundamentalist resistance to new technology.
• “What might take several humans to create and distribute can now be done at scale, faster, and with a dizzying ability to shift and target changing audiences,” Hunter explained.

The operational threat: Beyond propaganda, AI tools are enabling more sophisticated attack planning capabilities.

• Hunter noted that “trends in other domains suggest that the use of GenAI in developing new tools such as novel IEDs or tactics is either in place now or will be shortly.”
• Agentic AI systems could soon allow terrorists to autonomously source bomb-making materials and coordinate complex operations.
• Adam Hadley from Tech Against Terrorism warned: “In a few months’ time, it might be possible to get an agentic system to say, scour the internet for all precursor bomb materials and buy it for me and send it to these addresses.”

In plain English: Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can operate independently to complete complex tasks without constant human oversight—like a digital assistant that can research, make purchases, and coordinate activities on behalf of its user.

Four-front digital strategy: ISIS is advancing across multiple AI domains simultaneously.

• Extremist chatbots programmed with radical viewpoints.
• Generative and agentic AI for creating synthetic propaganda and manipulating real footage.
• Gaming platform infiltration using AI bots on platforms like Roblox and Minecraft.
• Predictive analytics to identify and target potential recruits on social media.

Policy response: U.S. lawmakers are pushing for proactive measures to counter AI-enabled terrorism.

• Representative August Pfluger, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, introduced the Generative AI Terrorism Risk Assessment Act, which advanced earlier this month.
• “Foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) are actively seeking ways to exploit the application to recruit, radicalize, and inspire attacks on U.S. soil,” Pfluger told Newsweek.
• Federal agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued guidelines addressing AI terrorism risks.

The regulatory challenge: Current oversight mechanisms are struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving AI capabilities.

• UN experts reported that ISIS “continued to experiment with artificial intelligence (AI), mostly for radicalization and recruitment, and to amplify or enhance propaganda.”
• Ghafar Hussain, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, noted that “law enforcement and policy makers are always playing catch up and passing laws that have limited impact.”
• European and UK legislation focuses on content moderation while “the real issue is algorithms and dark web forums which are unregulated,” according to Hussain.

Why this matters: The convergence of AI accessibility and terrorist innovation creates unprecedented security challenges that traditional counterterrorism approaches may struggle to address, requiring new strategies that balance technological advancement with national security concerns.