A man who police have identified as Matthew Alan Livelsberger exploded a Cybertruck outside of the Trump International Hotel on New Year’s Day.

CNN says that the driver “fatally shot himself” and “seven other people were injured in the blast” (Babineau, Jan 5). Luckily, BBC mentioned that “all injuries were minor” (Looker, Jan 2).

According to an article by CNN, “The explosion was caused by a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle detonated by a device controlled by the driver” (Babineau, Jan 5). Police released excerpts from a 6 page manifesto found on the driver’s phone to Forbes in which he said “I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took” (Roush, Jan 8). This note may seem odd, but the same article by Forbes mentioned that, “Livelsberger was a member of the Army’s Green Berets special forces unit, served at Fort Bragg, was deployed twice to Afghanistan and was on leave from Germany at the time of the explosion” (Roush, Jan 8).

CNN reported that “Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a Tuesday news conference the soldier, Matthew Livelsberger, started using ChatGPT to get information on how to conduct his plot, calling it a “game changer,” (Babineau, Jan 5). This was saddening for OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT, and they were quoted by CNN stating,

“Our models are designed to refuse harmful instructions and minimize harmful content. In this case, ChatGPT responded with information already publicly available on the internet and provided warnings against harmful or illegal activities. We’re working with law enforcement to support their investigation,” (Babineau, Jan 5).

Additionally, BBC wrote that “there are several parallels – but no definitive link – between the suspects in the incident in Las Vegas and a truck attack in New Orleans that left 14 dead, which both took place on New Year’s Day” (Looker, Jan 2). The article specifically notes that both served “at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, although there is no record they served in the same unit” and “both served in Afghanistan in 2009, but there is no evidence they were in the same region or unit” (Looker, Jan 2).