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Incident 1742: ChatGPT Allegedly Helped a Teenager in Sarthe, France, Plan Terrorist Attacks on Schools and Government Buildings

Description: A 17-year-old student in Sarthe, France, allegedly used the AI chatbot ChatGPT to assist plans to burn schools and attack government buildings and embassies. Reported exchanges included explanations of explosion damage and security weaknesses, plus lyrics praising the Islamic State terrorist group. He alleged ChatGPT reinforced his radicalization; his lawyer confirmed AI influenced his behavior. Police arrested him before the plans were carried out.
Editor Notes: 09/01/2025: Arrested in Le Mans, France; 09/05/2025: Placed under formal investigation and in pretrial detention; 10/28/2025: Le Parisien reported ChatGPT's alleged role. The incident date uses the arrest as an anchor because the AI exchanges are undated. Incident ID created 10/10/2026.

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Alleged: Social media platform developers , OpenAI , Large language model developers , Chatbot developers and ByteDance developed an AI system deployed by Terrorism suspects , Men and boys , ISIS supporters , Extremists , ChatGPT users , Chatbot users , Boys , Adolescents , Adolescent terrorism suspect in Sarthe, France , Adolescent boys and Minors, which harmed Minors , Victims of online radicalization , Government workers , General public of France , General public , Educational communities targeted in Sarthe, France , Educational communities and Diplomats.
Alleged implicated AI systems: TikTok recommendation algorithms , TikTok , Social media platforms , Recommender systems , OpenAI large language models , Large language models , ChatGPT and Chatbots

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1742
Report Count
3
Incident Date
2025-09-01
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+2
“ChatGPT is partly responsible for my radicalization”: the murky role of AI in a teenager’s jihadist project
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“ChatGPT is partly responsible for my radicalization”: the murky role of AI in a teenager’s jihadist project

“ChatGPT is partly responsible for my radicalization”: the murky role of AI in a teenager’s jihadist project

leparisien.fr

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Planned attack in Sarthe: the 17-year-old high school student used Chat GPT to help with the preparation, his lawyer confirms

Planned attack in Sarthe: the 17-year-old high school student used Chat GPT to help with the preparation, his lawyer confirms

france3-regions.franceinfo.fr

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Attacks in preparation: ChatGPT at the heart of a high school terrorist plot

Attacks in preparation: ChatGPT at the heart of a high school terrorist plot

sudradio.fr

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“ChatGPT is partly responsible for my radicalization”: the murky role of AI in a teenager’s jihadist project
leparisien.fr · 2025
AI Translated

“If 16 13kg propane gas cylinders explode in a truck, what is the damage?” M. is 17 years old. He is a high school student in the Sarthe region, and if he asks this question to the ChatGPT application, it's not for a physics and chemistry l…

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Planned attack in Sarthe: the 17-year-old high school student used Chat GPT to help with the preparation, his lawyer confirms
france3-regions.franceinfo.fr · 2025
AI Translated

The lawyer for the 17-year-old high school student, arrested and imprisoned in early September for terrorist conspiracy, told our colleagues at ICI Maine (formerly France Bleu) that his client used the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT t…

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Attacks in preparation: ChatGPT at the heart of a high school terrorist plot
sudradio.fr · 2025
AI Translated

A 17-year-old from the Sarthe region, arrested last month, has been charged with terrorist conspiracy. He allegedly used the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to plan two attacks, one of which targeted schools. The investigation raises q…

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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