Designing a gun could take little more than an ordinary conversation with GatGPT, according to its creator, Cody Wilson. That could reduce the expertise someone needs to produce an untraceable firearm. To demonstrate it, the gun-rights activist has made the WASP: an unusually shaped, 3D-printed .22-caliber weapon that apparently functions and fires real ammunition, without a serial number.
In The Verge’s reporting, Wilson describes the WASP as the “first AI-made gun.” His earlier creation, made 13 years ago, was what the source calls the world’s first 3D-printed firearm. The claim with greater implications, though, concerns the software used to create the WASP, not the weapon alone.
The training material for GatGPT came from DEFCAD, a library Wilson launched online that holds millions of digital guns and gun parts. As described, GatGPT can field any firearms question and choose components for a build. Someone unable to distinguish a clip from a magazine could therefore potentially design a gun.
“I would argue that what we’ve made is not an AI-generated gun, but an AI that can generate guns,” Wilson told The Verge.
That is an important distinction, though it establishes neither autonomous weapon design nor dependable results. By Wilson’s account, he created the WASP by talking to GatGPT in simple, natural language, with a human directing the process. A gun that apparently functions demonstrates the concept; it does not establish that the software can repeatedly deliver designs that are safe or reliable.
For Wilson, access to firearms is a “fundamental human right.” He says others could follow his example with GatGPT, including in states where making the gun would break the law. Removing the need for firearms knowledge appears to be the point, not a side effect.
Without a serial number, the WASP brings that aim into the argument over ghost guns. These homemade weapons bypass government oversight and are difficult to trace. Some take the form of ready-packaged do-it-yourself kits; others have custom designs. As another example, the source cites the ghost gun allegedly used by Luigi Mangione to shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Provided GatGPT performs as described, letting people design firearms without much relevant knowledge could sharply increase the spread of such weapons. For critics, that possibility is the main issue, not merely AI’s involvement in making a gun with an unconventional appearance.
“[Wilson] admits the goal here,” Justin Wagner, senior vice president for law and policy at the gun safety group Everytown, told The Verge. “He wants to lower the barrier to entry so anyone, regardless of their background check status or legal eligibility [can] own a gun. He wants anyone to be able to design and manufacture weapons, and that’s dangerous.”
Legal obstacles have complicated attempts to curb these DIY firearms. A federal judge in August invalidated the ATF’s ghost-gun rule, which had been adopted during the Biden administration. Under that rule, serial numbers were mandatory on 3D-printed gun kits and parts, and manufacturers had to run background checks on their customers.
Laws passed in New York and California instead require companies making 3D printers to equip their products with gun-blocking software. The requirements have drawn controversy in the 3D-printing community.
