Argentine teenager planning school shooting with ChatGPT raided after FBI alert

The Argentine Federal Police (PFA, in Spanish) raided the home of a teenager in Quilmes, Buenos Aires Province, on Thursday after the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerted them that he had been discussing murdering his classmates with the generative AI chatbot ChatGPT.

Alejandro de Mena, legal assistant at the Quilmes Juvenile Criminal Prosecution Office No. 1 explained in an interview with Radio Mitre that the investigation began on August 19 following an alert from the FBI Legal Attach at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina.

The alert was raised after the teenager used key monitored words during his discussions with the artificial intelligence platform. He was asking the chatbot what he would need to carry out an attack on his schoolmates, planned for 2027.

The teenager was identified through his IP address, a numerical label assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.

Rise in cases De Mena explained that the alert triggered a protocol put in place by the Quilmes Juvenile Criminal Prosecution Office after cases of public intimidation “exploded” due to viral internet challenges in March and April. 

He added that these had led to several raids and trials when the crimes committed were considered punishable.

The latest raid in Quilmes was carried out two days after the alert was received, with officers seizing two cell phones, two pairs of tactical gloves, a military camouflaged hat, a skull-print balaclava, another camouflage balaclava, and black tactical protective goggles.

The teenager was charged with “public intimidation” and summoned to the prosecutor’s office. Neither he nor his parents have given testimony regarding the incident.