The AI Backlash Has Tech Executives Fearing for Their Lives

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Updated July 15, 2026 9:03 pm ET | Lindsay Ellis , Zusha Elinson and Tina Li

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Violent threats against AI companies are rising and spilling over into real-world security incidents

SAN FRANCISCO—A security guard at Anthropic rushed to stop the man sneaking into the lobby of the world’s most-valuable AI startup.

The man had entered by following closely behind a badge-swiping employee. He showed the guard an envelope marked with the name of a top Anthropic executive. 

The executive was “going to be killed,” he told the guard, and he needed to warn someone, according to records of the April 15 incident viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The encounter, which took place five days after an attempted firebombing of OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman’s house, ended without violence or an arrest. But for executives at Anthropic—and across the artificial-intelligence industry—the threat was far from over.

In recent months, mounting opposition to AI has given rise to a surge of violent rhetoric, threats against people and property, and a serious attempt at harm. The phenomenon has executives at tech companies large and small reconsidering their personal security arrangements and how they talk about their products to a public that is increasingly wary of the technology and the societal changes it is ushering in.

Police in San Francisco have responded to several threats against employees of Anthropic and OpenAI, according to records viewed by the Journal.

The Texas man who allegedly threw an incendiary device at Altman’s house was charged with attempted murder and attempted arson. Officers found a manifesto advocating for the killing of AI CEOs and investors. He pleaded not guilty.

That same month, a man who had applied for a job at Anthropic using a fake name allegedly posted a threat to skin the children of company employees as “punishment” for what he alleged was the theft of...

[Prince of Space]

You missed my point entirely. I’m not afraid of hydrogen & nuclear energy. I’m talking about computers having control over almost everything we do. Now add in AI & there’s an enormous danger in delegating gate-keeping duties to inanimate objects when it comes to releasing bombs into the atmosphere. Wars have started over less.

[Prince of Space]

If you watch a video for more than 3 minutes & you still have no idea what it’s about, then it’s AI. I also immediately turn off anything that mispronounces common words or locations. For example, “the narrator” on a crime show I was watching the other night absolutely butchered Tehachapi every single time, which was actually pretty funny but I still turned it off.

[Prince of Space]

That’s one of the few things about AI that brings me some joy, thinking about the inevitable obsolescence of “movie stars” after they spent yrs lecturing normal Americans about how dumb we are because we don’t want to get an experimental shot or don’t support Ukraine above all or don’t believe black lives matter more than our own and object to the trans movement they’re trying to force on us all.

[srmanuel]

My point has been, any new technological revolution brings dangers and enormous opportunities.

Nuclear energy is a prime example, in the wrong hands, it can destroy countries or the entire world, yet it’s provided cheap affordable energy to hundreds of millions of people improving their lives.

Even something far simpler, airplanes, daily millions of people worldwide travel peacefully via air travel, yet planes are currently being used to drop bombs destroying property and killing people.

The point is, we don’t get rid of advancements in technology because there is a downside because the upside can be fantastic as well..

AI is here, it’s still developing but it’s not going away, we are right to be skeptical, but it would be foolish to shut it all down to avoid potential danger when the upside is so huge.