Man who exploded Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI, police say

UPDATE - JANUARY 7:

The highly decorated soldier who exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas used generative AI including ChatGPT to help plan the attack, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.

A laptop, cellphone and watch are still under review nearly a week after 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger fatally shot himself just before the truck blew up.

A review of Livelsberger’s searches through ChatGPT indicate he was looking for information on explosive targets, the speed at which certain rounds of ammunition would travel and whether fireworks were legal in Arizona.

Kevin McMahill, sheriff of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, called the use of generative AI a “game-changer” and said the department was sharing information with other law enforcement agencies.

“This is the first incident that I’m aware of on U.S. soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device," he said. “It’s a concerning moment.”

During a roughly half-hour-long news conference, Las Vegas police and federal law enforcement officials unveiled new details about the New Year's Day explosion.

Among the details law enforcement disclosed: Livelsberger stopped during the drive to Las Vegas to pour racing-grade fuel into the Cybertruck, which then dripped the substance. The vehicle was loaded with 60 pounds (27 kilograms) of pyrotechnic material and officials are still uncertain exactly what detonated the explosion, but said it could have been the flash from the firearm that Livelsberger used to fatally shoot himself.

Authorities also said they uncovered a six-page document that they have not yet released because they're working with Defense Department officials since some of the material could be classified. They added that they still have to review contents on a laptop, mobile phone and smartwatch.

Among the items released was a journal Livelsberger kept titled “surveillance” or “surveil” log. It showed that he believed he was being tracked by law enforcement, but he had no criminal record and was not on the police department's of FBI's “radar,” the sheriff said Tuesday.

The log showed that he considered carrying out his plans in Arizona at the Grand Canyon's glass skywalk, a tourist attraction on tribal land that towers high above the canyon floor. Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren said police don't know why he changed his plans. The writings also showed he worried he would be labeled a terrorist and that people would think he intended to kill others besides himself, officials said.

Once stopped outside the hotel, video showed a flash in the vehicle that they said they believed was from the muzzle of the firearm Livelsberger used to shoot himself. Soon after that flash, video showed fire engulfing the truck's cabin and even escaping the seam of the door, the result of considerable fuel vapor, officials said. An explosion followed.

Livelsberger, an Army Green Beret who deployed twice to Afghanistan and lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, left notes saying the explosion was a stunt meant to be a “ wake up call ” for the nation's troubles, officials said last week.

He left cellphone notes saying he needed to “cleanse” his mind “of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took."

The explosion caused minor injuries to seven people but virtually no damage to the Trump International Hotel. Authorities said that Livelsberger acted alone, according to his writings, he didn't intend to kill anyone else.

Livelsberger’s letters touched on political grievances, societal problems and domestic and international issues, including the war in Ukraine. He wrote that the U.S. was “terminally ill and headed toward collapse.”

Investigators had been trying to determine if Livelsberger wanted to make a political point, given the Tesla and the hotel bearing the president-elect’s name.

Livelsberger harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said. In one of the notes he left, he said the country needed to “rally around” him and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

ORIGINAL - JANUARY 3:

The highly decorated Special Forces soldier who died by suicide in a Cybertruck explosion on New Year's Day confided to a former girlfriend - who had served as an Army nurse - that he faced significant pain and exhaustion that she says were key symptoms of traumatic brain injury.

Matthew Livelsberger, 37, was a five-time Bronze Star recipient, including one with a V device for valor under fire. He was very private but shared images and texts with Alicia Arritt, 39, who he met and began dating in Colorado in 2018. In them he opened up about exhaustion, pain that kept him awake at night and reliving violence from his deployment in Afghanistan.

“My life has been a personal hell for the last year,” he said Arritt during the early days of their dating, according to text messages she provided to the AP. “It’s refreshing to have such a nice person come along.”

Arritt also served on active duty in the Army as a nurse from 2003 to 2007, deploying to the military’s massive medical complex in Germany where she helped treat many soldiers with traumatic brain injuries and blast injuries from intense ground combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

She said the military failed to get Livelsberger the care he needed, symptoms she saw in him as early as 2018.

“He would go through periods of withdrawal, and he struggled with depression and memory loss,” Arritt said. “He said it was a blast injury. He got several concussions from that.”

Livelsberger also had a hard time with post-traumatic stress disorder and would relive some of the violence and killings he had a role in or witnessed in Afghanistan.

“I would encourage him to get therapy, and he would give me reasons that he couldn’t,” Arritt said. “There was a lot of stigma in his unit, they were, you know, big, strong, Special Forces guys there, there was no weakness allowed and mental health is weakness is what they saw.”