The New Year’s Day cybertruck explosion that killed one person outside a Las Vegas hotel was planned using ChatGPT, investigators say.
Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado, carried out the attack, killing himself and injuring seven people on Wednesday, Jan. 1, LVMPD previously said.
Now, authorities say their investigation revealed further details of the attack: a six-page-long manifesto, evidence that he used ChatGPT to plan his attack and indication that he died by suicide.
“We also have clear evidence now that the suspect used ChatGPT AI to help plan his attack,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 8.
The attacker used ChatGPT to “get information on how to conduct this particular plot, trying to figure out the amount of explosives needed in order to conduct the explosion he was looking to cause,” Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said at the press conference.
Some of the questions he asked the AI service include “Purchasing Tannerite in Arizona how much do you buy” and “what pistol could set it off.”
“We are saddened by this incident and committed to seeing AI tools used responsibly. Our models are designed to refuse harmful instructions and minimize harmful content,” a spokesperson for OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, told PEOPLE. “In this case, ChatGPT responded with information already publicly available on the internet and provided warnings against harmful or illegal activities. We’re working with law enforcement to support their investigation.”
Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside Trump Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada – 01 Jan 2025.
EyePress News/Shutterstoc
The documents recovered also show that the suspect believed he was being followed and wrote in unspecified notes, reviewed by investigators, that during his mission, he “picked a massive airbnb in the rich suburbs as a f— you to my surveillance.”
He further documented his purported struggles with his mental health, writing about “graphic encounters” from his time in the military which “replay in my head all day” and “ruined” all his relationships, leaving him a “shell of a human being with nothing to live for.”
This pointed towards the “suicidal” aspect of the case, Koren said.
Police are continuing the investigation, but caution there are details in the documents that they cannot release due to the information being of relevance to the Department of Defense.
“With this new information comes more questions than answers,” McMahill said at the conference.
