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San Antonio Man Arrested After Alleged AI Chat Threat to Elementary School

Investigators traced threatening Anthropic chatbot queries to the suspect using cellphone and internet records, though the record leaves unclear how the FBI first learned of the chats or how the bot replied.

Overview

  • Nathaniel Michael Carrasco was arrested on Aug. 29 and booked into Bexar County Jail on a third-degree felony charge of making a terroristic threat with bond set at $250,000.
  • Police say Carrasco typed multiple queries into an Anthropic AI chatbot on Aug. 11 that expressed intent to obtain a gun and to "walk in" and "start shooting up" students at Serna Elementary School.
  • The FBI’s National Threat Operations Section alerted the Southwest Texas Fusion Center on Aug. 28 and investigators used emergency requests to Carrasco’s phone carrier, ISP and Google to link the account to his home and arrest him.
  • North East ISD initially received only a general warning and later deployed officers and safety staff at Serna as a precaution after learning the school was specifically named in the affidavit.
  • The affidavit does not say how the chatbot responded or precisely how the FBI first became aware of the chats, a gap that sharpens questions about how AI providers and threat-monitoring systems share information with law enforcement.