Anti-AI activism might land you on a law enforcement watchlist

• A new report from Wired says that law enforcement agencies have been monitoring for “anti-tech violent extremism” threats.
• Listed “suspicious activities” related to this new category of extremism include the act of monitoring AI data centers.

Law enforcement agencies have started monitoring for what they’re calling “anti-tech violent extremism.” According to a new report released today, internal memos from the FBI, DHS, and local fusion centers make reference to purported dangers posed by growing opposition to the rapidly expanding AI sector and the data centers that power it, with at least one Regional Intelligence Center identifying activities like photographing a data center as suspicious activity that can identify “adversarial actors.”

The report, published today by Wired, is informed by a tranche of unpublished reports from law enforcement agencies. Reporter Daniel Boguslaw writes that anti-tech violent extremism seems to be a newly coined term, not referenced in any public-facing documentation from the FBI or DHS to date.