The first vibe-coded gun is here

Since gun-rights activist and alt-right-friendly agitator Cody Wilson made the first 3D-printed firearm 13 years ago, he’s helped usher in a chaotic era of untraceable ghost guns. Now he’s claiming another first: “the first AI-made gun.” It’s called the WASP. I stood about 20 feet away as Wilson and his sidekick clamped the WASP to a DIY test mount outside Defense Distributed headquarters in Austin, Texas. The 3D-printed .22 caliber handgun is, in reality, little more than a pistol barrel attached to a spring-loaded plastic box. Its rudimentary design bears a resemblance to Wilson’s single-shot 3D-printed “Liberator,” albeit with some quintessentially AI-generated oddities, like a wacky, bubbly grip that doesn’t quite fit a human hand. It was aimed toward a shallow green slope in the backyard of a semi-residential neighborhood. A long black string ran from its trigger to Wilson, who sat crouched about 10 feet back behind a police riot shield. “Three. Two. One.” I braced for a thunderous crack, but instead heard only a loud click. The world’s first AI-generated gun had misfired. “This didn’t happen last time,” Wilson, annoyed, reassured me as he carried out some quick troubleshooting. The gun’s striker had hit the cartridge, he said,…