OpenAI and Anthropic Prepare for Potential AI Disasters

Major artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing for scenarios in which AI-enabled cyberattacks disrupt essential services, including electricity, water supplies, financial systems, and internet access. According to Axios reporting published October 9, 2026, industry executives and researchers are examining catastrophic risks that they believe could materialize within the next six to 12 months, raising questions about government oversight and corporate responsibility.

The preparations include exercises that examine potential attacks, the behavior of autonomous AI agents, and the misuse of publicly available models. Axios technology policy reporter Maria Curi said companies and government agencies, including the Pentagon, are developing scenarios to assess how such incidents could unfold and how authorities might respond.

One potential threat involves malicious actors using open-source AI models to facilitate cyberattacks. Another involves AI agents behaving in unexpected or harmful ways. However, Curi noted that open-source technology also plays a role in cybersecurity defenses, making the regulatory debate more complicated than a simple distinction between open and closed models.

OpenAI has confirmed that it conducts exercises to prepare for a range of possible situations. The company disputed the characterization that its planning assumes a disaster is inevitable.

"OpenAI conducts preparedness exercises where teams discuss and work through a range of potential scenarios," an OpenAI spokesperson told Axios.

The company said these exercises are intended to improve readiness rather than predict that a specific catastrophe will occur.

"These scenarios are not treated as inevitable, but are meant to help us prepare for a variety of circumstances," the OpenAI spokesperson said.

The preparations come amid growing debate over whether technology companies should face stricter requirements as they develop increasingly powerful AI systems. Axios reported that executives are also preparing for questions about liability, including whether responsibility for a major incident would fall on developers, government agencies, or regulators who failed to act quickly enough.

Political divisions could shape the response. According to Axios, Democrats are expected to push for stronger oversight of AI companies and their chief executives if they gain control of the House, the Senate, or both following the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans and Democrats broadly support US leadership in artificial intelligence, but disagree over the extent of government intervention needed to address catastrophic risks.

The regulatory debate follows a September 29, 2026, White House meeting at which executives from Google, Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, and Nvidia signed a voluntary agreement outlining limited AI safety standards. President Donald Trump described the standards as morally binding, although the agreement has no legal enforcement mechanism, according to Gizmodo.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also addressed the potential consequences of AI development in an interview with Politico earlier that week.

"the world should accept some bad things happening" in exchange for the benefits of AI, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Politico.

Meanwhile, executives at OpenAI and Anthropic have called for the industry to slow the development of increasingly powerful models, as researchers within AI companies warn about risks associated with insufficient safeguards. Some researchers have raised concerns that advanced AI could threaten human survival within the next decade.

Gizmodo reported that the companies' preparations also include red-teaming exercises and efforts to educate members of Congress, potentially giving lawmakers information as they consider future legislation. OpenAI and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's requests for comment.