A new study published by the University of Cambridge has stated that some Boko Haram fighters used frontier artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Meta AI and DeepSeek, to plan attacks, design explosive devices and improve battlefield operations.
The report titled ‘God has helped us, and so will AI: How the Terrorist Group Boko Haram Uses Frontier AI’ is based primarily on 57 interviews with 27 former Boko Haram members conducted in North-east Nigeria between 2025 and 2026.
The study, authored by Antonia Juelich, a terrorism researcher at the Cambridge Programme on AI Science & Policy (CASP), presented what it calls the first field-based evidence of AI adoption by terrorist organisations.
The study was first reported by The New York Times. A review of the 93-page report by PREMIUM TIMES found that many of its central claims could not be independently verified and are based largely on interviews with former Boko Haram members who defected from the group.
The researcher acknowledged these limitations in the study, noting that several claims could not be independently corroborated because of the secrecy surrounding Boko Haram and the difficulty of accessing active members.
