Last week, a judge handed down a 223-page opinion that lambasted the Department of Homeland Security for how it has carried out raids targeting undocumented immigrants in Chicago. Buried in a footnote were two sentences that revealed at least one member of law enforcement used ChatGPT to write a report that was meant to document how the officer used force against an individual.
The ruling, written by US District Judge Sara Ellis, took issue with the way members of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies comported themselves while carrying out their so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” that saw more than 3,300 people arrested and more than 600 held in ICE custody, including repeated violent conflicts with protesters and citizens. Those incidents were supposed to be documented by the agencies in use-of-force reports, but Judge Ellis noted that there were often inconsistencies between what appeared on tape from the officers’ body-worn cameras and what ended up in the written record, resulting in her deeming the reports unreliable.
More than that, though, she said at least one report was not even written by an officer. Instead, per her footnote, body camera footage revealed that an agent “asked ChatGPT to compile a narrative for a report based off of a brief sentence about an encounter and several images.” The officer reportedly submitted the output from ChatGPT as the report, despite the fact that it was provided with extremely limited information and likely filled in the rest with assumptions.
“To the extent that agents use ChatGPT to create their use of force reports, this further undermines their credibility and may explain the inaccuracy of these reports when viewed in light of the [body-worn camera] footage,” Ellis wrote in the footnote.
Per the Associated Press, it is unknown if the Department of Homeland Security has a clear policy regarding the use of generative AI tools to create reports. One would assume that, at the very least, it is far from best practice, considering generative AI will fill in gaps with completely fabricated information when it doesn’t have anything to draw from in its training data.
The DHS does have a dedicated page regarding the use of AI at the agency, and has deployed its own chatbot to help agents complete “day-to-day activities” after undergoing test runs with commercially available chatbots, including ChatGPT, but the footnote doesn’t indicate that the agency’s internal tool is what was used by the officer. It suggests the person filling out the report went to ChatGPT and uploaded the information to complete the report.
No wonder one expert told the Associated Press this is the “worst case scenario” for AI use by law enforcement.
Researchers at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) have discovered that hackers are creating malware that can harness the power of large language models (LLMs) to rewrite itself on the fly.
An experimental malware family dubbed PROMPTFLUX, identified by GTIG in a recent blog post, can rewrite its own code to avoid detection.
It’s an escalation that could make future malware far more difficult to detect, further highlighting growing cybersecurity concerns brought on by the advent and widespread adoption of generative AI.
Tools like PROMPTFLUX “dynamically generate malicious scripts, obfuscate their own code to evade detection, and leverage AI models to create malicious functions on demand, rather than hard-coding them into the malware,” GTIG wrote.
According to the tech giant, this new “just-in-time” approach “represents a significant step toward more autonomous and adaptive malware.”
PROMPTFLUX is a Trojan horse malware that interacts with Google’s Gemini AI model’s application programming interface (API) to learn how to modify itself to avoid detection on the fly.
“Further examination of PROMPTFLUX samples suggests this code family is currently in a development or testing phase since some incomplete features are commented out and a mechanism exists to limit the malware’s Gemini API calls,” the group wrote.
Fortunately, the exploit has yet to be observed infecting machines in the wild, as the “current state of this malware does not demonstrate an ability to compromise a victim network or device,” Google noted. “We have taken action to disable the assets associated with this activity.”
Nonetheless, GTIG noted that malware like PROMPTFLUX appears to be “associated with financially motivated actors.” The team warned of a maturing “underground marketplace for illicit AI tools,” which could lower the “barrier to entry for less sophisticated actors.”
The threat of adversaries leveraging AI tools is very real. According to Google, “State-sponsored actors from North Korea, Iran, and the People’s Republic of China” are already tinkering with the AI to enhance their operations.
In response to the threat, GTIG introduced a new conceptual framework aimed at securing AI systems.
While generative AI can be used to create almost impossible-to-detect malware, it can be used for good as well. For instance, Google recently introduced an AI agent, dubbed Big Sleep, which is designed to use AI to identify security vulnerabilities in software.
In other words, it’s AI being pitted against AI in a cybersecurity war that’s evolving rapidly.
December 1, 1891 The International Peace Bureau was launched in Rome, Italy, “. . . to coordinate the activities of the various peace societies and promote the concept of peaceful settlement of international disputes.” The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for its work, and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.
December 1, 1948 Following a brief but bloody civil war in 1948, Costa Rican President Jose Figueres helped draft a constitution that abolished the military and guaranteed free election with universal suffrage (all adult citizens can vote). Money not spent on a military allowed the country to adequately fund health care and education, yielding one of the highest literacy rates on the continent, ninety-six percent. This is judged to be a factor in the nation’s never having fallen prey to corruption, dictatorships, or the bloodshed that has marred the history of much of the region. Costa Rica stands apart
December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks, a black seamstress active in the local NAACP, was arrested by police in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. Mrs. Parks faced a fine for breaking the segregation laws which said blacks had to vacate their seats if there were white passengers left standing. The same bus driver had thrown her off his bus twelve years prior for refusing to enter through the rear door. Rosa Parks Mrs. Parks had not been the first to defy the Jim Crow (the system of legalized or de jure segregation) law but her arrest sparked the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr. The Montgomery bus company couldn’t survive without the revenue from its black passengers who, for the next year, created car pools and other means to avoid using the city busses. The bus restored in Henry Ford Museum The boycott was successful and Mrs. Parks became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.“ The story of the bus Rosa Parks biography Arrest record of Rosa Parks
December 1, 1959 Representatives of 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, signed a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity. President Eisenhower said the treaty and its guarantees “constitute a significant advance toward the goal of a peaceful world with justice.”
December 1, 1966 Comedian Dick Gregory was convicted in Olympia, Washington for his participation in a Nisqually Native American fishing rights protest. Interview with Dick Gregory
December 1, 1969 A lottery was held to determine which young men would be drafted into the armed services for the ongoing Vietnam War. A large glass container held 366 blue plastic balls each marked with a birth date. The drawing determined the order of induction for draft-eligible men between 18 and 26 years old, and was broadcast live nationally. The first draft lottery was held in 1942. Rep. Alexander Pirnie, R-NY, draws the first capsule in the draft lottery held on December 1, 1969. The capsule contained the date, September 14.
December 1, 1997 A silent march of women in Khartoum, Sudan, protesting conscription, was met by a police attack and the arrest of 37 women.
A Lesbian bar in New York City. A sapphic society in the South. Food insecurity is high in queer communities. And this holiday season, LGBTQ+ groups are stepping in.
Images from NYC Queers 4 Food Justice’s Nov. 6, 2025 food pantry event at Ginger’s in Brooklyn, New York. Images Courtesy of NYC Queers 4 Food Justice
By Nov. 6, 2025, hunger was in the headlines and on the streets. SNAP benefits had just expired in the government shutdown, and cupboards were running bare for millions of Americans. That night, Ginger’s, Brooklyn’s oldest lesbian bar, hosted an event organized by NYC Queers 4 Food Justice to distribute food, Covid-19 tests, Narcan, tampons, and more.
With Ginger’s usual Thursday karaoke night as backdrop, some 70 bar-goers perused the venue’s back room.
Some came out with Lululemon-donated tote bags filled with cans of soup, loaves of bread, jars of peanut butter, packs of period pads sponsored by sexual wellness company LOLA, and bushels of apples, potatoes, or greens from a local Hudson Valley farm.
Paper proof of hunger was not required. Ginger’s bouncer did not check SNAP benefits or EBT cards at the door; as usual, scanning IDs to make sure attendees were at least 21.
The government has since reopened, but the government-driven food insecurity and economic upheaval remains for many—especially with food-centric gatherings like Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas ahead. This holiday season, LGBTQ+ groups—like NYC Queers 4 Food Justice in New York, Peach City Sapphics in Atlanta, the Brave Space Alliance in Chicago, and the Okra Project, which operates nationwide—are supplying their communities with much-needed essentials.
An ‘inspiring’ turnout
NYC Queers 4 Food Justice was started by two community-minded New Yorkers,Kadie Radics, 29, and London Dejarnette, 24, in October 2025. In anticipation of federal SNAP cuts, Radics—the director of supportive housing at the mental health nonprofit Fountain House—sought help from queer groups to get a food distribution event off the ground, including the lesbian social club Butch Monthly.
Dejarnette, a program coordinator at a nonprofit working to end student food insecurity, answered Radics’ call-out. They’d never met, but within a month, they’d planned and scheduled the first NYC Queers 4 Food Justice event: Nov. 6 at Ginger’s.
“When I walked into that space on Thursday, every single butch or masc in there was ready to work and just wanted to know what they could do,” recalled Dejarnette.
“The turnout that we had, and also the turnout of first-time food pantry-goers, I think, was really telling,” they added. Dejarnette found it “really inspiring to see that these people, who have been needing food assistance for a really long time [but] have not felt comfortable” getting help from a trusted source.
NYC Queers 4 Food Justice’s inaugural event at Ginger’s fed dozens of people and raised more than $5,000 in donations, Radics said. On Nov. 19, the group raised more than $1,000 at Cubbyhole, a lesbian bar in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood.
“We want our food to be reaching people who need it most, because the people that need it most are the ones that have been left in the dust by the federal government,” Dejarnette said. “What we ultimately want to do is utilize this organizing power that queer people have had for generations.”
On hunger’s ‘edge’
The need for food is on the rise everywhere in the U.S.
Approximately 42 million Americans depend on monthly SNAP benefits, and the average recipient receives $187 a month, or about $6 a day. Halting those electronic payments created a ripple effect that hurt childhood nutrition and student learning, distressed family budgets, and sapped grocery stores of shoppers.
SNAP “was supposed to just be a supplemental resource, but because we are so deep in a food emergency, it has become a lifeline for so many Americans,” said Dejarnette, who has run food pantry and redistribution programs since college.
Queer communities may be feeling that pressure more acutely. Research suggests queer adults are more likely than others to experience food insecurity. Nationwide, 1 in 4 queer adults between 18 and 44 years old rely on SNAP benefits to access food.
Socioeconomic gaps are highest in the Midwest, where 35 percent of queer people make less than $24,000 per year, according to the University of California, Los Angeles’ Williams Institute which studies sexual orientation and gender identity law and policy. For non-LGBT people in the region, it’s 24 percent. The income gap between LGBT and non-LGBT residents of Rocky Mountain states is similar.
In Atlanta, a group called Peach City Sapphics is trying to spotlight the particular food needs of queer people in some of Georgia’s biggest cities who are struggling to pay their bills, find housing and transportation.
“Queer people get pushed to the edge fastest because the safety net is already thin,” Peach City Sapphics organizer Ciara Peebles said in a written statement to Rewire News Group.
Many members of the southern LGBTQ+ community don’t have “supportive families,” she explained, so “when benefits get pulled back, the consequences are immediate.”
Peach City Sapphics—which hosts not only mutual aid events but also community book swaps, reality TV watch parties, and crafting nights—saw the government shutdown hit its community in Atlanta and Athens hard.
“Food pantries were already stretched, but now the demand is constant. People are showing up earlier, lines are longer, and we’re seeing folks who’ve never had to ask for help before,” Peebles wrote. “Going into the holidays without those benefits has made things a lot harder—people are literally choosing between groceries, bills, and gas. There’s just no cushion anymore.”
Households across the country are making these kinds of difficult decisions. And queer organizations in cities across the country are stepping in to help.
In Chicago, the Brave Space Alliance is partnering with a network of local organizations as part of a Community Resource Day, offering free clothing, baby essentials, social services, and more. And nationwide, the Okra Project has launched a number of mutual aid funds to help Black trans folks meet their basic needs.
‘It felt safe’
Many people who need help may feel uncomfortable asking for or receiving aid, including those in the queer community, according to NYC Queers 4 Food Justice.
That’s why having queer-run food programs with few restrictions—like not asking for ID or requiring online signup in advance—is so important, said Dejarnette, who said they grew up on food benefit programs, including SNAP.
“I had been aware that there were food pantries and options like that, but I didn’t think they were for me,” said Pierce Bartman, 24, who juggles multiple jobs, from social media and photography to restaurant work.
“I think part of that is ego. Part of that is worrying that someone else needs it more than me.”
But when Bartman went to Ginger’s in early November, seeing so many familiar faces put them at ease.
“My friends were the ones handing me the rice, and my friends were the ones organizing the event, and it was at my favorite bar,” Bartman said. “It felt safe.”
Bartman left with enough food to last the rest of the month.
“We will always take care of one another,” Radics said, of the LGBTQ+ community. “There’s just something about that inherent oppression as a queer person, where we just have this shared understanding of love and consideration.”
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