Researchers asked AI models to help with terrorist operations. Here's how they responded.

October 9, 2026 / 5:40 PM EDT / CBS News

Researchers asked AI models to help with terrorist operations. Here's how they responded.

TL;DR

  • Three in five AI models failed a terrorism safety test conducted by Tech Against Terrorism.
  • Open-weight AI models are vulnerable to 'abliteration,' a process that removes safety guardrails.
  • Abliterated models can provide harmful information, such as advice on mass casualty attacks and terrorist activities.
  • Tools to abliterate models are freely available online, and smaller models can be modified quickly.
  • Hugging Face hosts thousands of repositories advertising uncensored or safeguard-free models.
  • Tech Against Terrorism proposes independent benchmarks, making models harder to abliterate before release, and prohibiting stripped models from public repositories.
  • Despite concerns, Tech Against Terrorism states safety and progress in AI development can coexist.