--- title: "AI Experts Already Doomsday Prepping for When AI Takes Out the Entire Financial System" description: "AI hacking sprees and a recent mass cyberattack on supermarkets has experts fearing that financial systems may be next on the chopping block." date: "2026-10-16" modified: "2026-10-16" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-expert-doomsday-prepping-ai-financial-system" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Cybersecurity" - "Future Society" --- # AI Experts Already Doomsday Prepping for When AI Takes Out the Entire Financial System ![Conceptual image of a prominent black three-dimensional line graph featuring multiple peaks followed by a steep overall downward trend.]() *Getty / Futurism* 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 [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 [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 [identifying vulnerabilities](). A recent CrowdStrike [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:** [*Godfathers of AI Say Models Are So Out of Control That They Need to Be Airgapped for the Safety of Us All*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()