Description: An 18-year-old Islamic State supporter in Vienna, Austria, reportedly sought and received explosives advice from ChatGPT amid allegations of plans to attack the Israeli embassy and a Shiite Islamic center. He was convicted of terrorist association, threats, and coercion. The court acquitted him of terrorist training and instruction charges and found no evidence of preparations for a specific crime.
Editor Notes: ChatGPT exchanges reportedly occurred in early April 2025; 04/09/2025 uses his arrest as an anchor because the exchange dates are unconfirmed. Arrest reported 04/23/2025; AI use and final judgment reported 09/30/2025; further chatbot details published 10/02/2025. Incident ID was created 10/09/2026.
Entities
View all entitiesAlleged: OpenAI , Large language model developers and Chatbot developers developed an AI system deployed by Terrorism suspects , ISIS supporters , Extremists , ChatGPT users and Chatbot users, which harmed Shia Muslims , Religious communities , Muslims , Imam Ali Islamic Center (Vienna, Austria) , Government of Israel , Embassy of Israel in Austria and Diplomats.
Incident Stats
Incident ID
1739
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-04-09
Editors
Daniel Atherton
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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The Austrian citizen of Egyptian descent, who had used artificial intelligence (AI) in his fantasies of planning an attack and discussed the production and storage of explosives with ChatGPT, was found guilty of terrorist association, crimi…
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An 18-year-old Viennese man forwarded IS propaganda in chat rooms for over two years. Towards the end of his radicalization, he went so far as to have ChatGPT explain bomb-making instructions to him. On Tuesday, he faced charges in the Vien…
Variants
A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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