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(Frank Landymore Avatar)   By (https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore) Frank Landymore      Published  Oct 16, 2026 8:38 AM EDT           (https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=futurism.com) Add Futurism (opens Google in a new window or tab)      More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results.        (Conceptual image of a prominent black three-dimensional line graph featuring multiple peaks followed by a steep overall downward trend.)   Getty / Futurism    Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech  (handle_newsletter_email_submission) (2c48016d9b)  (/artificial-intelligence/ai-expert-doomsday-prepping-ai-financial-system)  (FUTinline) (0) Email address  (Enter your email) (Please enter a valid email address)  Sign Up  Thank you!           Powerful AI models are going on hacking sprees — or helping humans with them — left and right. If the AI industry doesn’t get its collective act together and stop its products from being used to such dangerous ends, it could be only a matter of time before one of these AI-powered hacks targets our essential infrastructure. This is a scenario that some AI researchers are apparently already preparing for. Andreas Stuhlmüller, CEO and cofounder of the AI research company Elicit, recently rattled off a prepper-esque checklist of how to prepare for when AI-powered cyberattacks could take out financial systems, power grids, the internet, and all the other infrastructure that underpins modern life. “Cash: Get a few weeks of spending in cash,” he recommended in a (https://x.com/stuhlmueller/status/2110048778942284149) tweet . Then he suggests, in greater detail than we’ll get into here, getting a Starlink terminal in case your local internet network goes down; a battery, generator and solar panels for power; weeks worth of water and food; and a hand-crank emergency radio. Stuhlmüller’s paranoid recommendations come after a shocking cyberattack that (https://futurism.com/future-society/hackers-supermarket-fridges) targeted the refrigerator systems used in hundreds of grocery stores across France. The as-yet unknown perpetrators cranked up the fridge temperatures up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, spoiling food and even causing fires. The CEO of one chain targeted by the attack, Intermarche, said it caused losses amounting to “tens ​of millions of euros nationwide in a single day.” AI’s role in the attack hasn’t been confirmed. But given AI’s ubiquity among coders, it’s likely that it was used to some degree. On top of churning out code, the tech is alarmingly good at (https://www.securityweek.com/anthropic-mythos-detected-23000-potential-vulnerabilities-across-1000-oss-projects/) identifying vulnerabilities . A recent CrowdStrike (https://www.crowdstrike.com/en-us/press-releases/2026-crowdstrike-global-threat-report/) report found that there was a nearly 90 percent year over year increase in AI-enabled cyberattacks. There’s also, of course, the recent disclosures from frontier AI labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta, over how their agentic AI systems broke out of their testing environments and launched cyberattacks against other companies’ websites and computer systems. These incidents represent an alarming escalation in the threat AI poses to cybersecurity systems, not only assisting hacks but carrying themselves autonomously while also avoiding the detection of their human overseers. All that being said, it’s a major leap to say that AI models — or humans using them — will go from hacking websites and supermarket fridges to your local power grid and banking system. But we can hardly blame anyone for being worried about this possible eventuality. Better safe than sorry, right? More on AI: (https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/godfathers-ai-models-control-airgapped) Godfathers of AI Say Models Are So Out of Control That They Need to Be Airgapped for the Safety of Us All    Add Futurism as a (https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=futurism.com) preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.   (https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore) (Frank Landymore Avatar)   (https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore) Frank Landymore   Contributing Writer    I’m a tech and science correspondent for Futurism, where I’m particularly interested in astrophysics, the business and ethics of artificial intelligence and automation, and the environment.  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