ISIS, Al-Qaeda use AI to inspire attacks against Jews in U.S.: report

Article content

A new report says that terrorist groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda use AI on social media to inspire lone wolf attacks against the Jewish community in the United States. But Canadians are not exempt from this kind of targeted recruitment online.

The report was released on Feb. 3 by nonprofit foundation the Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW), which exposes and counters online extremist activity. Its founding president Marc Ginsberg is an expert on cyberterrorism and extremist violence fuelled by social media. He is also a former White House Mideast Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and a former U.S. ambassador to Morocco.

Article content

There’s no differentiation just because we have a physical border

Marc Ginsberg

“I don’t think ISIS and Al-Qaeda are doing anything, per se, to differentiate between the United States and (the rest of) North America,” said Ginsberg, speaking to the National Post on Wednesday. “There’s no differentiation just because we have a physical border.”

The report found that the American Jewish community has become the “new battleground” for terrorist groups. It listed several reasons behind the recent targeting of Jews — mainly the anger against Israel’s response to the October 7 attacks, when Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people in the Jewish homeland, sparking a war in Gaza.

Terrorists have also become emboldened lately, per the report, due to a combination of the lack of content moderation on social media and extremist websites, and the availability of generative AI (G-AI) programs.

Terrorist groups have been relying on G-AI programs, like DeepSeek, to create propaganda videos, memes and photos. Such programs make their content appear more professional and more palatable to an American audience. The groups use voice cloning software from platforms like ElevenLabs to achieve an Americanized English sound when speaking in videos.

Article content

Article content

CSW researchers also found that terrorists made so-called “target identification packages” that showed geospatial photos of Jewish centres located in Toronto, as well as New York, Miami, Chicago, Detroit, Sydney and Melbourne. In addition, there has been an onslaught of new English-language publications enhanced by G-AI that offer “how-to guides and tips for this new and improved cyber propaganda spear.”

The content is curated for a “younger, more persuadable demographic with the goal of inciting resentment by potential lone wolf terrorist attacks to avenge Gaza’s Hamas terrorist and civilian casualties,” the report said. Using social media and G-AI allows terrorist groups to keep their identities hidden and recruit people without leaving a digital fingerprint.

This tactic has resulted in a surge of attempted, and successful, lone wolf attacks in the United States.

Article content

One such alleged attempt was plotted by a Pakistani man residing in Canada. The 20-year-old man, identified as Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, was arrested by the FBI and Canadian authorities in September 2024. According to the RCMP, Khan was “allegedly in the process of planning a deadly attack targeting Jewish citizens” in Brooklyn, New York. The attack was set to coincide with the anniversary of the October 7 attack on Israel, the report stated.

“Outbreaks of antisemitic violence in the West, particularly on campuses, have also become a fertile recruiting grounds for radical Islamic terror groups desiring to reach a new audience of potential U.S. recruits,” the report said. Canada was no stranger to such events on university campuses, with anti-Israel encampments popping up in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Alberta and elsewhere across the country.

“I’m well aware of the antisemitism that is ominous in Canada in recent months. We’ve seen all sorts of stories,” Ginsberg told the National Post. “But your government has been much slower tackling the sources of antisemitic incitement.”

Article content

Ginsberg referenced Samidoun, a Vancouver-based group that was recently listed as a terrorist organization in Canada and in the U.S. after outcries from Jewish advocacy groups.

“That’s an illustration of how foreign terrorist organizations are using front groups to incite antisemitism in both Canada and the United States,” he said. “Trudeau’s parliamentary committees sat on their hands and knees for months and months refusing to do anything about the fact that Samidoun was operating a nonprofit, crossing the border into the United States to incite campus unrest in New York.”

The report suggests public and private sector policy measures to combat antisemitism, from leveraging U.S. President Donald Trump’s new executive order against antisemitism to creating a social media early warning centre that would monitor threats to the Jewish community in real time.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Article content