The AI backlash leaves tech executives fearing for their lives, the WSJ reveals

Important notice: the content provided from this Wall Street Journal article is merely the initial excerpt visible before the paywall. The text cuts off after the first few paragraphs, so the summary that follows is strictly limited to that material and is necessarily brief; it is not possible to know what else the full report develops.

According to the article's preview, written by Lindsay Ellis, Zusha Elinson and Tina Li, violent threats against artificial intelligence companies are increasing and have already translated into real security incidents. The text sets the story in San Francisco and recounts a specific episode that occurred on April 15: a man managed to slip into the lobby of Anthropic's offices by closely following an employee who opened the door with their access card. When intercepted by a security guard, the intruder produced an envelope bearing the name of a senior company executive and claimed that this person was going to be murdered, insisting that he needed to warn someone. The incident ended without violence or arrest, according to the records reviewed by the WSJ.

The article frames this episode within a broader climate of hostility toward the sector: it notes that it took place just five days after an attempted firebombing of the home of OpenAI's chief executive, Sam Altman. The article itself includes surveillance footage of that attempted attack on Altman's house, attributed to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the preview, for Anthropic's executives —and for the AI sector in general— the threat was far from over after these two episodes.

Beyond these two specific events, the available excerpt provides no additional figures, statements from the affected companies, details about the identity or motives of those involved, or information about possible security measures adopted by OpenAI, Anthropic or other companies in the sector. Nor is it possible to confirm, based on this extract, whether the report documents more similar cases at other AI companies, since that part of the content remains behind the WSJ's paywall.