MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Four teenagers plotted to buy guns and attack Jewish people days after a bishop was stabbed i n a Sydney church, according to police documents cited in news reports on Monday.
Five teens, aged 14 to 17, were charged in a Sydney court on Thursday last week with a range of offenses including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act.
Police alleged they all “adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology” and were part of a network that included a 16-year-old boy charged with stabbing Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel on April 15 as a church service was being streamed online.
According to a police fact sheet tendered to the Sydney Children’s Court, two of the defendants charged last week discussed buying guns on April 19, the same day the bishop’s alleged attacker was charged, News Corp Australia newspapers reported.
Gun ownership is heavily restricted in Australia under tough national laws, but there is a black market for firearms in Sydney.
Four of the boys charged last week -- a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds – allegedly used the encrypted messaging app Signal to plan their attack.
“I wanna die and I wanna kill ... I’m just excited ... Is your plan to get caught or die or escape?" a 17-year-old allegedly said on April 20 in a group chat.
The 16-year-old allegedly responded, “We’re gonna be planning for a while ... we prefer to escape, but whatever happens, it’s the qadr (predetermination) of Allah,” the newspapers reported.
The 15-year-old allegedly said on Signal on April 19, ”I really want to target the yahood,” meaning Jewish people.
The 16-year-old allegedly said of the church attacker, “I know the bloke who done it” and “he’s my mate.”
The New South Wales Police Force media unit told The Associated Press on Monday it could not confirm the accuracy of the reports or provide a copy of the police fact sheet.
The Sydney Children’s Court did not immediately respond to a request for the document.
Lawyer Ahmed Dib, who represents two of the boys charged last week, said he had not read the newspaper report and could not comment on its accuracy.
The boy accused of stabbing Emmanuel and a priest was charged with committing a terrorist act, a crime that carries a potential maximum penalty of life in prison.
The Rev. Isaac Royel was released from the hospital with a bandaged hand and shoulder within days of the attack.
Emmanuel on Sunday gave his first sermon since the stabbing at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church.
He wore a patch over his right eye to cover a knife wound and was applauded by his congregation.
“This young man who did this act almost two weeks ago, I say to you, my dear, you are my son and you will always be my son,” the 53-year-old cleric said in comments posted on social media.
“I will always pray for you. I will always wish you nothing but the best,” Emmanuel added.
The boy's parents, in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp., said their son was violent and had a suspected autism spectrum disorder, but they said he was not a terrorist.
The parents were in hiding for fear of reprisals after rioting broke out around the church within hours of the stabbing.
The ABC also reported the son liked online videos of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden and the boy’s WhatsApp profile picture was an image of bin Laden.
FILE - Security officers stand guard outside Orthodox Assyrian church in Sydney, Australia, April 15, 2024. Four teenagers plotted to buy guns and attack Jewish people days after a bishop was stabbed in a Sydney church, according to police documents cited in news reports on Monday, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of four senators led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is recommending that Congress spend at least $32 billion over the next three years to develop artificial intelligence and place safeguards around it, writing in a new report released Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “harness the opportunities and address the risks” of the quickly developing technology.
The group of two Democrats and two Republicans said in an interview Tuesday that while they sometimes disagreed on the best paths forward, it was imperative to find consensus with the technology taking off and other countries like China investing heavily in its development. They settled on a raft of broad policy recommendations that were included in their 33-page report.
While any legislation related to AI will be difficult to pass, especially in an election year and in a divided Congress, the senators said that regulation and incentives for innovation are urgently needed.
“It’s complicated, it’s difficult, but we can’t afford to put our head in the sand,” said Schumer, D-N.Y., who convened the group last year after AI chatbot ChatGPT entered the marketplace and showed that it could in many ways mimic human behavior.
The group recommends in the report that Congress draft “emergency” spending legislation to boost U.S. investments in artificial intelligence, including new research and development and new testing standards to try and understand the potential harms of the technology. The group also recommended new requirements for transparency as artificial intelligence products are rolled out and that studies be conducted into the potential impact of AI on jobs and the U.S. workforce.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the group, said the money would be well spent not only to compete with other countries who are racing into the AI space but also to improve Americans’ quality of life — supporting technology that could help cure some cancers or chronic illnesses, he said, or improvements in weapons systems could help the country avoid a war.
“This is a time in which the dollars we put into this particular investment will pay dividends for the taxpayers of this country long term,” he said.
The group came together a year ago after Schumer made the issue a priority — an unusual posture for a majority leader — and brought in Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana and Rounds of South Dakota.
As the four senators began meeting with tech executives and experts, Schumer said in a speech over the summer that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence tools was a “moment of revolution” and that the government must act quickly to regulate companies that are developing it.
Young said the development of ChatGPT, along with other similar models, made them realize that “we’re going to have to figure out collectively as an institution” how to deal with the technology.
“In the same breath that people marveled at the possibilities of just that one generative AI platform, they began to hypothesize about future risks that might be associated with future developments of artificial intelligence,” Young said.
While passing legislation will be tough, the group’s recommendations lay out the first comprehensive road map on an issue that is complex and has little precedent for consideration in Congress. The group spent almost a year compiling the list of policy suggestions after talking privately and publicly to a range of technology companies and other stakeholders, including in eight forums to which the entire Senate was invited.
The first forum in September included Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Schumer said after the private meeting that he had asked everyone in the room — including almost two dozen tech executives, advocates and skeptics — whether government should have a role in the oversight of artificial intelligence, and “every single person raised their hand.”
The four senators are pitching their recommendations to Senate committees, which are then tasked with reviewing them and trying to figure out what is possible. The Senate Rules Committee is already moving forward with legislation, voting on Wednesday on three bills that would ban deceptive AI content used to influence federal elections, require AI disclaimers on political ads and create voluntary guidelines for state election offices that oversee candidates.
Schumer, who controls the Senate’s schedule, said those election bills were among the chamber’s “highest priorities” this year. He also said he planned to sit down with House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has expressed interest in looking at AI policy but has not said how he would do that.
Some experts warn that the U.S. is behind many other countries on the issue, including the EU which took the lead in March when they gave final approval to a sweeping new law governing artificial intelligence in the 27-nation bloc. Europe’s AI Act sets tighter rules for the AI products and services deemed to pose the highest risks, such as in medicine, critical infrastructure or policing. But it also includes provisions regulating a new class of generative AI systems like ChatGPT that have rapidly advanced in recent years.
“It’s time for Congress to act,” said Alexandra Reeve Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. “It’s not enough to focus on investment and innovation. We need guardrails to ensure the responsible development of AI.”
The senators emphasized balance between those two issues, and also the urgency of action.
“We have the lead at this moment in time on this issue, and it will define the relationship between the United States and our allies and other competing powers in the world for a long time to come,” Heinrich said.
Associated Press writer Matt O'Brien in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during a conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Microsoft will invest $2.2 billion over the next four years in Malaysia's new cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure as well as partnering with the government to establish a national AI center, Nadella said Thursday. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
FILE - OpenAI's ChatGPT app is displayed on an iPhone in New York, May 18, 2023. The rate of businesses in the U.S. using AI is still relatively small but growing rapidly, with firms in information technology and professional services, and in locations like Colorado and the District of Columbia, leading the way, according to a new paper from U.S. Census Bureau researchers. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
