Leading AI executives are secretly preparing for the fallout from a potential major disaster.
The executives anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water, reports Axios.
The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders.
Says an OpenAI spokesperson.
“OpenAI conducts preparedness exercises where teams discuss and work through a range of potential scenarios. These scenarios are not treated as inevitable, but are meant to help us prepare for a variety of circumstances.”
Anthropic declined to comment.
The planning involves red-teaming for worst-case scenarios and focuses mainly on racing to educate members of Congress.
Company executives know regulation has no chance of passing right now, but still want to shape the legislation and policies U.S. leaders will turn to after a first catastrophic event.
A recent campaign targeting South Korean financial organizations shows the damage one person can do.
A hacker from China allegedly used AI tools from China-developed models, including DeepSeek, to steal data from tens of thousands of bank customers.
The attacker used Claude Code to ask for help finding places to sell the stolen data, according to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.
The use of agentic AI tooling alongside traditional offensive capabilities highlights the continued evolution CrowdStrike has observed in adversarial tradecraft, says CrowdStrike Intelligence.
Many AI industry insiders believe a major event will occur in the next six to 12 months. In July, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) introduced the AI Kill Switch Act that would require developers of the most powerful AI systems to maintain the technical capability to throttle, suspend or shut them down.
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