AIPolicyTracker

AI incident ·

Tunisian Man Allegedly Used ChatGPT to Research Bomb-Making During Paris Terror Plot Targeting Louvre and Jewish Community

3 news reports Snapshot 7 Sep 2026

In brief

An AI system built by Openai, Large Language Model Developers and 1 other and deployed by Terrorism Suspects, Malicious Actors and 1 other allegedly harmed National Security And Intelligence Stakeholders, Musee Du Louvre Visitors And Staff and 5 others.

Risk domain
Not classified
Occurred
Coverage
3 reportsMay 2026

What happened

French investigators alleged that Tunisian national Dhafer Mellala used ChatGPT to research the construction and destructive effects of explosive devices while planning a jihadist-inspired attack in Paris. His communications reportedly discussed placing explosives at the Louvre and attacking members of the Jewish community in the 16th arrondissement. He denied planning an attack, saying his activity reflected curiosity.

Laws that address this harm

No recorded instrument yet addresses this use case where it happened. See the open queue.

Matched from the record's risk domain and country to the instruments recorded here. A reviewer can correct the match in the repository (data/external/incident_overrides.yaml).

News reports (3)

Titles link to the original publisher; report text is not reproduced here.

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
National Security And Intelligence Stakeholders, Musee Du Louvre Visitors And Staff, Musee Du Louvre, Jewish People, Jewish Community Of France, General Public Of France, General Public

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Risk domain
—
Risk subdomain
—
Causal entity
—
Intent
—
Timing
—
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
—

Source record: incident #1625 on the AI Incident Database · all 3 reports