Assessing Developments in Anti-Technological Extremism with AI Data Centers

As AI develops, anti-technology extremism is evolving—making AI data centers symbolic, high-risk targets for ideologically diverse actors. 

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, may be seeing a resurgence in his ideology. However, this also may mean a resurgence in the violent methods he used to garner attention for his ideology. Kaczynski had an extremist, anti-technology ideology, solidified through his manifesto “Industrial Society and Its Future,” which was published in The Washington Post and The New York Times after he had threatened to continue his bombing campaign. The manifesto laid out Kaczynski’s ideology, in which he perceived technology as a “disaster for the human race” due to its psychological effects and its compulsion to lead an unfulfilling life. With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly being integrated into all aspects of society, similar sentiments to Kaczynski’s concerns, ranging from increasing loneliness to job loss, are echoed. Fueled by some of these fears, threats to physically damage AI infrastructure have proliferated online in the past year. Tech infrastructure has been targeted before, for example, when an anti-government extremist with hopes to “kill off about 70 percent of the internet” plotted to bomb an Amazon data center in Virginia in 2021. Similarly, in January 2026, a far-left group in Germany claimed responsibility for a suspected arson attack near a Tesla factory with broader goals related to the environment. In the latest evolution of anti-technological extremism, aligned with multiple political narratives, AI data centers may become the new targets for attacks. 

The Evolution of the Unabomber Ideology

As the Unabomber, Kaczynski created sophisticated, homemade bombs that he mailed or hand-delivered to targets throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, until he was arrested in 1996. Kaczynski targeted many university spaces related to engineering and computer science, as well as prominent figures in those fields, or other symbolic targets that were perceived as enemies per his manifesto. For example, Kaczynski’s bombs were sent to the head of the computer science department at Vanderbilt University, caused a Yale University computer scientist to lose several fingers, and killed a computer store owner in Sacramento, just to name a few. Kaczynski killed three, and yet failed to stop the progress of the technological revolution.  Kaczynski even touched on AI in “Industrial Society and Its Future,” saying, “If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can’t make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines.”        

While Kaczynski’s goals were primarily anti-technologist, a related concern was ecoterrorism, or the use of terror tactics to support environmentally-motivated political goals. Anti-tech extremism and ecoterrorism can be two sides of the same coin when the grievance is related to the environment, but anti-tech extremism can also stem from fears surrounding technological progress. Ecoterrorism is rarely, if ever, lethal, causing some to note the proper term may be “ecotage,” or environmentally motivated sabotage. Attack targets often include symbolic infrastructure, which aims to bring attention to the cause, rather than necessitating killing. From 1995 to 2010, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF) conducted a total of 239 arson attacks and bombings; importantly, though, none of the attacks led to fatalities. Targets were highly symbolic, including homes built in particular areas, meat and food processing plants, and universities, a la Kaczynski. After a series of arrests for domestic terrorism charges against ELF and ALF leadership and members, the groups were significantly weakened. However, as with all extremism, an ideology can be pervasive. With the ELF and ALF’s inability to curb technological innovation obvious, the movement turned to apocalyptic visions of the world if technology was not destroyed, creating an urgent, existential threat for all of humanity. 

Anti-technology and pro-environmental extremism today can center around AI. For example, Ziz LaSota, often known only as Ziz, led a group of extreme Rationalists dubbed the Zizians, which became connected to a series of murders and crimes across the United States. Rationalists are “a highly cerebral, extremely online group of tech and philosophy nerds dedicated to improving the world through logical thinking and deeply concerned with whether artificial intelligence will overtake the world and destroy humanity.” Ziz was deeply concerned with the existential threat that AI posed, followed veganism, and seemed to approve of the use of violence in her blog posts. Ziz also adhered to a now generally dismissed theory called “Roko’s basilisk,” a hypothetical in which, “in the distant future, a superintelligent AI might decide to punish people who had been able to bring it into existence sooner, but didn’t.” The violence the Zizians are connected to is not terrorism, as the attacks were not meant to draw a wider audience into fear. For example, just before the group’s eviction, they attempted to kill their landlord, which implies a more criminal motive rather than terroristic. Similarly, during an effort to move to Canada, one of the group’s members “may have panicked” at the border, leading to a shoot-out that killed one of the Zizians and a US Border Patrol Agent. The violence did not have a political motive, nor was it meant to communicate a message to a wider audience, thus not being a terrorist tactic. However, the ideological connection of the group members, as well as their use of violence generally, might foreshadow the potential for a more extreme group to use the tactic of terrorism motivated by an opposition to AI.

Anti-technological extremism is not aligned with one political ideology. While ecoterrorism and ecotage have been primarily associated with leftist causes, Kaczynski has found a post-partisan fan base for parts of his manifesto, leading to the term “Tedpilled,” referring to being exposed to Kaczynski’s writing and finding agreement with it. Being Tedpilled could serve as a pathway to radicalization to violence, particularly as individuals acting on “salad bar” ideologies or mixed and unclear motivations have become a growing trend. For example, eco-fascism was used by the terrorists themselves to justify the 2019 Christchurch attack, the 2019 El Paso attack, and the 2022 Buffalo shooting. Eco-fascism has been used to “greenwash” the far-right, mixing environmental concerns with racist theories to validate hate and violence. Thus, as fears about new technologies such as AI grow, it cannot be aligned with one side of the political spectrum. 

Data Centers May Be a New Target for Extremism