Anti-AI sentiment is on the rise—and it’s starting to turn violent

Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. It’s Beatrice Nolan here, filling in today for AI reporter Sharon Goldman. In this edition…OpenAI debuts its own highly-capable cybersecurity model…Anthropic launches Claude Opus 4.7…a startup wants to use AI to evaluate journalism in a way that freedom of the press advocates fear will chill reporting that relies on whistleblowers.On Friday, a man hurled a Molotov cocktail at the gate in front of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s house. Daniel Moreno-Gama, 20, from Spring, Texas, was arrested on suspicion of the attack an hour later. At the time, he was outside OpenAI’s headquarters, allegedly trying to smash his way in with a chair.

On Sunday, two more people were arrested after a gun was fired near Altman’s property (it remains unclear whether that shooting was targeting Altman in any way).

Online, some have laid the blame for the attacks at the door of so-called “AI doomers”—those who believe AI poses an existential threat to society. And while it’s true the man accused of attacking Altman’s home had a manifesto warning of humanity’s “extinction” at the hands of AI, it’s also true that a less extreme, but extremely broad-based, anti-AI sentiment has been building for years.

People are increasingly aware of, and concerned about, the technology’s environmental impacts, automation of jobs, and AI use in warfare. Then there are the cases of psychological harm linked to the technology which have already generated wave of lawsuits that blame the tech for multiple deaths, including those of teenagers. Some people, particularly those who grew up during the rise of social media, are also increasingly worried about the potential of becoming addicted or too reliant on AI tools.

Part of this is a messaging problem, one that is often fueled by the AI labs themselves. For years, tech executives have been touting AI as a dangerous technology. It could help people perpetrate cyberattacks, build bioweapons, and almost certainly lead to mass unemployment. Oh, and it also just might lead to human extinction. Just last week, Anthropic launched its “Mythos” model, which it said was too dangerous to be in public hands. (In this case, that fear might be justified. But fear, it turns out, is also pretty effective marketing—it’s hard to think of another consumer product whose makers have so consistently warned the public that it might destroy civilization.)

Either way, it seems the public has been listening.

A March NBC News poll found just 26% of voters hold positive views of AI, versus 46% who hold negative ones—only the Democratic Party and Iran were less popular.

Anti-AI sentiment is particularly sharp among the younger generation, who are already dealing........

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