Someone vibe-coded a gun and 3D-printed it — and wants the freedom loving citizens of the world to enjoy this power, too.
The creator, gun-rights activist Cody Wilson, told The Verge that it’s the “first AI-made gun” — his timely followup to the world’s first 3D-printed firearm that he crafted 13 years ago. Called the WASP, the .22 caliber weapon’s unconventional design aptly looks like it might’ve been hallucinated by an old image model, except it apparently actually works and is capable of firing real ammunition.
But the WASP is arguably just a proof-of-concept of his more consequential creation: his very own AI gun generator called “GatGPT,” which was trained on an online library of millions of digital guns and gun parts called DEFCAD (itself launched by Wilson). It will answer any question about firearms you can throw at it and pick out parts for your build, potentially allowing even someone who doesn’t know a clip from a magazine to design their own 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.
Crucially, Wilson’s WASP doesn’t have a serial number like a traditional firearm. If his AI gunsmith tool works as it’s made out to be, it could be a huge escalation in the advent of so-called “ghost guns,” or homemade firearms that are made outside of government oversight and can’t be easily traced. Some are available as pre-packaged do-it-yourself kits, while others may be custom-designed. (Luigi Mangione used one to shoot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.)
This is almost certainly Wilson’s point. He considers access to firearms to be a “fundamental human right.” He claims he made WASP through simple natural language conversations with GatGPT, and so anyone else could do the same, even if it’s not legal in their state.
“[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.”
Recent efforts to limit the proliferation of these DIY weapons have hit a few snags. In August, a federal judge struck down the ATF’s “ghost gun” rule adopted under the Biden administration that required 3D-printed gun kits and parts to be marked with serial numbers and for their manufacturers to conduct background checks on customers. New York and California, though, passed laws that require 3D printer companies to install their products with gun blocking software, which have proven controversial in the 3D-printing community.
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