Police: Cybertruck driver used ChatGPT to plan explosion

Estelle Atkinson, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jan 7, 2025

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LAS VEGAS — Police said Tuesday that the suspect in a New Year’s Day Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel used ChatGPT to help plan his attack and left behind a six-page manifesto.

Authorities identified the man behind the explosion as active-duty military operations sergeant Matthew Livelsberger.

Livelsberger, 37, shot himself in the head on the morning of Jan. 1 seconds before his rented Cybertruck exploded, injuring seven bystanders, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill previously said.

Authorities said Livelsberger likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he kept a diary on his phone leading up to the explosion.

“Consider this last sunset of ‘24 and my actions the end of our sickness and a new chapter of health for our people,” Livelsberger wrote, according to copies of the notes shared by the Metropolitan Police Department. “Rally around the Trump, Musk, Kennedy, and ride this wave to the highest hegemony for all Americans!”

Alicia Arritt, Livelsberger’s former girlfriend, told multiple news outlets that he confided in her about pain and exhaustion, symptoms that Arritt, who served as an army nurse, said are typical of traumatic brain injury.

These kinds of injuries can cause personality changes later in life, Arritt told news outlets.

After losing contact for years, Arritt said that she received messages from Livelsberger in December, including videos of the Cybertruck and its dancing headlights, which can sync up with music.

Arritt told news outlets that she doesn’t know what drove her former boyfriend to do what he did, but that she believed he needed more support from the military.

Authorities said on Friday that their investigation hinted at a possible motive, highlighting “potential other family issues or personal grievances” held by Livelsberger, in addition to his likely PTSD.

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