Technology and Science09 October, 20262 min read
OpenAI, Anthropic Plan Washington Response After Catastrophic AI-Driven Cyberattack
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AI leaders privately plan government and public response to a catastrophic AI event. Contingency measures target cyberattack disruption of banks, utilities, internet, and power.
Doomsday planning
Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other leading artificial intelligence companies are privately gaming out how Washington and the broader public would respond if a catastrophic AI-driven event causes widespread real-world damage. The scenarios being war-gamed center on large-scale cyberattacks capable of severing access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water systems, and many AI industry insiders believe such an event will occur within the next six to 12 months.
OpenAI spokesperson said, "OpenAI conducts preparedness exercises where teams discuss and work through a range of potential scenarios," and the spokesperson added, "These scenarios are not treated as inevitable, but are meant to help us prepare for a variety of circumstances." Axios reported that the planning includes extensive red-teaming for worst-case scenarios and a focus on racing to educate members of Congress before a crisis hits.
Cyberattack examples
Executives anticipate that the blame game could begin whether a rogue-agent swarm breaks containment from an internal testing environment or a malicious actor finds unexpected ways to weaponize freely available models. A campaign targeting South Korean financial organizations, including reported breaches at two banks, has become a reference point in internal discussions about how quickly an AI-enabled attack can scale.
A hacker from China allegedly used AI tools built on Chinese-developed models, including DeepSeek, to steal data from tens of thousands of bank customers, and the attacker then used Anthropic's Claude Code to seek help locating places to sell the stolen data, according to cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Euronews said the preparations confront industry leaders with a wave of criticism and calls for government intervention if a potential disaster sparks broad public and political anger against the technology and its companies.
Regulation and backlash
Company executives acknowledge that meaningful regulation has no chance of passing in the current political environment, while they still want to shape the legislation and policies U.S. leaders will turn to after a first catastrophic event. The planning assumes Democrats could move quickly to shut down AI in the aftermath of a disaster, but the companies expect significant challenges from an aging Congress and fractured politics, including within the Democratic Party itself.
Senator Adam Schiff warned, "When AI undermines our national security, a pinky swear won't cut it," and Schiff wrote on X that the country needs commonsense guardrails before it is too late. The private planning also treats open-weight models as a central risk, because "Too many open-weight models already exist and can be freely downloaded and used to cause harm," and the stakes include a catastrophic event that undermines public trust and triggers backlash severe enough to override economic concerns.