SAUDI ARABIA - Warns of Terrorists Utilizing AI

Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN, Abdulaziz M. Alwasil, called for stronger international cooperation, expertise exchange and investment in capacity building to prevent terrorist groups from exploiting artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

Adam Hadley, executive director of Tech Against Terrorism, told The Media Line that the lack of a terrorism-specific AI benchmark was the reason the organization built one.

According to Tech Against Terrorism, the answer is not a ban on open models, but stronger intervention at the distribution and evaluation layers before harm occurs.

For Kiria Borak, a security analyst focused on West Africa and the Sahel, the concern is not only theoretical.

The phenomenon, she added, is not limited to highly connected regions or technologically advanced environments. Borak said AI-generated extremist content is already visible in West Africa, where she focuses much of her research.

Saudi Arabia has positioned the misuse of AI and emerging technologies not only as a global counterterrorism issue but also as a regional security concern.

“I think the drone concern is a real one. But my concern is the fact that the information on how to carry out attacks is so much more accessible. And their recruitment is so much more effective and efficient. And that combination is pretty concerning,” said Borak.

For now, the UN discussion, Saudi Arabia’s call for global cooperation and Tech Against Terrorism’s benchmark all point to the same unresolved question: whether governments and technology companies can build safeguards quickly enough before extremist actors learn to exploit the weakest parts of the system faster than the system can correct itself.

-themedialine.org, 3 July 2026

Commentary: We have reduced the 9-page report by quoting some telling excerpts. What becomes clear is that terrorism—in any shape or form, including online communication—is an issue worthwhile for intellectual debate and exchange.

Realizing that this is “new,” it seems that technology is beginning to surpass governmental directives and authority, as seen in the last quotation, “…the weakest parts of the system faster than the system can correct itself.”

Based on past experience, we think it will “correct itself.”

Here we are reminded of the Y2K frenzy, when the news media—and unfortunately, many well-meaning Christian ministries—were all up in arms predicting a global catastrophe with no end in sight. In the meantime, we all know the outcome: Subsequent programs and innumerable preparations took care of the issue, so there was no need for panic.

We must add, however, that there will be no remedy and no alternative when the Antichrist system takes over the global economy.

Daniel wrote more than 2,500 years ago about this last system: “And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of the sanctuary was cast down” (Daniel 8:10-11).

(See Discovering Daniel, Item #2423, $16.99.)