ThinkTankWeekly

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Terrorism

CSIS | 2026-07-13 | society

Topics: AI, Climate, Europe, Indo-Pacific, Middle East, Nuclear, Ukraine, United States

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English Summary

The brief argues that AI is unlikely to create entirely new forms of terrorism but will instead reinforce existing trends in decentralized violence, propaganda, and information warfare. The primary threat lies not in autonomous weaponry, but in AI's capacity to generate highly personalized, scalable, and multilingual disinformation (e.g., deepfakes), significantly lowering the barrier for radicalization and recruitment. While these technologies empower extremists, they simultaneously enhance state counterterrorism capabilities. Therefore, democratic societies must urgently develop robust institutional safeguards, regulatory oversight, and public-private coordination mechanisms to manage the inherent risks while maintaining civil liberties.

中文摘要

本報告指出,人工智慧(AI)不太可能創造全新形式的恐怖主義,而更可能會加劇現有的分散式暴力、宣傳和資訊戰趨勢。主要的威脅並非來自自主武器系統,而是 AI 產生高度個人化、可擴展且多語言假訊息(例如深度偽造內容,deepfakes)的能力,這極大地降低了激進化和招募的門檻。雖然這些技術賦予了極端分子力量,但同時也提升了國家反恐能力。因此,民主社會必須緊急發展健全的制度性保障、監管監督機制以及公私部門協調機制,以管理其內在風險,同時維護公民自由。

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