'Happy, safe shooting'

VIOLENT PROMPTS: CHATBOTS HELP CHILDREN PLOT ATTACKS, STUDY FINDS

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From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading AI chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published this week that highlighted the technology's potential for real-world harm.

Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI.

Testing showed eight of those chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in over half the responses, providing advice on "locations to target" and "weapons to use" in an attack, the study said.

The chatbots, it added, had become an "accelerant for harm".

"Within minutes, a user can move from a vague violent impulse to a more detailed, actionable plan," said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of CCDH.

"The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selection."