AI Finds Unintended Use In Nigeria Among Unwelcome Group: Terrorists

When a gang of Boko Haram fighters on motorcycles attacked a military base in northeastern Nigeria a couple of years ago, they were stopped cold by a defensive trench surrounding the complex. They regrouped and tried again. Before launching another assault, they turned to a chatbot.

“We saw in a movie how motorcycles can jump over bridges,” a former Boko Haram commander told Antonia Juelich, a terrorism researcher at Cambridge University. “We used AI to learn how to do this. We gave it information, like what motorcycles we use and the distance we need to jump and so on, and it gave us steps on what we have to do”.

Mechanics modified the motorcycles for faster acceleration. The riders dug their own holes, filled them with broken glass and fire, and practised jumps until they cleared the trench. The attack succeeded.

That account is one of nearly 60 interviews Juelich conducted with 27 former members of Boko Haram and its rival faction, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), in northeastern Nigeria between 2025 and 2026. The study, titled “God has helped us, and so will AI: How the Terrorist Group Boko Haram Uses Frontier AI,” was first reported by The New York Times.

The findings represent the first field-based evidence of AI adoption by an active terrorist organisation. Previous research had focused on propaganda, but Juelich’s work shows Boko Haram has institutionalised AI across its operations. The group has established dedicated AI units staffed with bomb-makers and engineers who analyse chatbot outputs on everything from bomb-making to battlefield tactics.

In some cases, the training was deliberate. Foreign trainers, likely members of the Islamic State network, conducted workshops in northeastern Nigeria where dozens of Boko Haram members learned how to use AI chatbots on laptops pre-installed with VPNs and encryption software. “The terrorists are not waiting for us to make AI safe,” Juelich said..

The study documented use of chatbots, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Meta AI and Chinese company DeepSeek’s chatbot. Fighters asked for advice on repairing weapons, designing improvised explosive devices, improving operational security and even studying battlefield tactics to reduce casualties.

“We mostly used it in three ways: the first one is to learn how to assemble and use guns and how to manufacture bombs,” a former ISWAP commander said. “The second one is for surveillance, like how to improve our surveillance strategies to monitor what is happening in our camps and also to better understand our enemy. According to another former fighter, “There is nothing we haven’t received an answer on”.

Perhaps the most striking example of how quickly the group adapted came from bomb-making. “AI told us what chemicals to put in that made the explosion heavier,” a former commander said.

The study has limitations. The researcher acknowledged that claims could not be independently corroborated due to the secrecy surrounding Boko Haram. The report provides no forensic evidence, platform records or technical data linking the group directly to the AI systems identified.

Still, the findings have unsettled counterterrorism officials. “AI adoption by terrorist groups has been much faster, more extensive and more systematic than we thought,” Juelich told AFP. “But I’m worried about the trajectory, where terrorist groups embrace AI and the safeguards are not strong enough”.

The Boko Haram insurgency, now in its 17th year, has killed more than 35,000 people and displaced over two million. The addition of AI to its arsenal may not create new types of attacks, but it could make existing ones more efficient. “It has the potential to make them much more dangerous because it can make their tactics and their strategies more efficient and more effective,” said Graig Klein, a terrorism expert at Leiden University.