Axios: AI lab executives are privately planning for a public revolt after a catastrophic AI event

Context

Axios reporter Maria Curi published the scoop on October 9, and Axios cofounder Jim VandeHei shared it earlier that morning, writing that the companies assume such an event in 2027. The report was then widely reposted on X, with posts from Watcher.Guru and Polymarket each passing 300,000 views. Axios ties the planning to a recent hacking campaign against South Korean financial firms in which CrowdStrike says the attacker used Claude Code.

Deep dive

Axios reports that top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are gaming out how the public and politicians would turn on the industry after a catastrophic AI event. According to Axios, these officials expect a large scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that cuts off access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water.

Axios says scenario planning is common, but that many top AI researchers and executives believe a major incident is inevitable, and many industry insiders told Axios they expect one in the next six to 12 months. An OpenAI spokesperson told Axios the company runs preparedness exercises and that these scenarios are not treated as inevitable. Anthropic declined to comment.

According to Axios, the planning involves red teaming worst case scenarios and focuses mainly on educating members of Congress. Executives know regulation has no chance of passing now, Axios says, but want to shape the laws and policies leaders turn to after a first catastrophic event. Axios reports that planners assume Democrats, ascendant after the midterms, would move fast to restrict AI but would face obstacles, including an aging Congress, an economy tied to the AI buildout, and open weight models that can already be freely downloaded.

Axios cites the South Korean bank campaign as an example of the damage one person can do. It says a hacker from China allegedly used Chinese models including DeepSeek to steal data from tens of thousands of bank customers, and, according to CrowdStrike, asked Claude Code where to sell the stolen data.

What to expect next

Watch for public statements from OpenAI, Anthropic and other labs about their preparedness work, since Axios says most of this planning is private.

Also watch Congress. Axios lists proposals ranging from a ban on superintelligence or a pause on advanced AI to a required kill switch, which it says has some bipartisan and industry support. The open question is whether any of these move before an incident, or only after one, as the executives quoted by Axios expect.