AI Backlash Has US Law Enforcement Concerned About ‘Anti-Tech Extremism’: Investigation

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies are increasingly warning about what they are describing as “anti-tech extremism,” which stems from public anger over artificial intelligence, data centers, and fears of mass job displacement.

A WIRED investigation based on more than 1,000 pages of unpublished documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests showed that the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and regional fusion centers have circulated reports describing anti-tech sentiment as an emerging domestic threat.

The documents show agencies tracking criticism of AI, data centers, and technology companies at a moment when the Trump administration has made AI expansion and infrastructure growth a central political and economic priority.

One New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau report cited by the outlet warned that a “chaotic atmosphere” created by AI adoption over the next five years could fuel protests, civil unrest, and “anti-tech violent extremist activity,” particularly in large cities.

The phrase does not appear in publicly available DHS or FBI domestic extremism guides. But the reports come amid a wider federal focus on domestic extremism after President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memo 7, which directs agencies to target political violence and organized domestic threats.

Fusion centers, created after the Sept. 11 attacks to share information between federal, state, and local agencies, are now circulating intelligence about alleged threats to data centers. One Western Pennsylvania fusion center warned that foreign actors, criminal groups, and extremists could target data centers because of their strategic role in the U.S. economy.

But legal experts quoted by WIRED say the reports risk blurring the line between violence and protected dissent. Spencer Reynolds, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told WIRED that “suspicious activity reports are incredibly unreliable, often about vague or innocent behavior, issued under permissive standards.”

Some indicators listed in the documents, including photography, observation, and testing security, could overlap with lawful protest, journalism, or civic monitoring. The scrutiny is growing as opposition to data centers spreads nationwide. Data Center Watch describes itself as a research project tracking grassroots opposition to data center development across the United States.

Gallup reported this month that 70% of Americans oppose building an AI data center in their local area, with 48% strongly opposed. That opposition is often rooted in local concerns like electricity demand, water use, noise, property values, environmental impact, and utility costs.

WIRED also reported that private intelligence firms working with law enforcement have monitored online anti-technology conversations. SITE Intelligence circulated bulletins alleging violent rhetoric in a “neo-Luddite” Discord server. At the same time, founder Rita Katz told the outlet that the firm only focuses on “communities with a proven link to real-world harm.”