--- title: "Terrified Tech Execs Are Traveling With Armed Bodyguards as AI Backlash Grows" description: "Public backlash to AI is intensifying — and transforming into real-world attempts at physical violence. Industry leaders are fearing for their lives." date: "2026-07-16" modified: "2026-07-16" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/tech-execs-armed-bodyguards-ai-backlash" categories: - "Anthropic" - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" --- # Terrified Tech Execs Are Traveling With Armed Bodyguards as AI Backlash Grows ![A photo illustration featuring an armed bodyguard from behind with his gun drawn.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Shutterstock* Public backlash to AI is intensifying — and transforming into real-world attempts at physical violence. Industry leaders are fearing for their lives. Leading AI companies and their top executives are beefing up security, the [*Wall Street Journal* reports](), as escalating anti-AI industry sentiment is culminating in threats and attempts of violence against the people and ventures building leading AI models. Some executives are even traveling with armed guards, while others have taken to keeping a lower public profile. "Tech CEOs, a few years ago, definitely did not have security," Dakota Dominguez, an executive at the Silicon Valley-based security firm JPT Security, told the *WSJ*. "A lot of tech companies now are incorporating that into their budgets." Earlier this year, the AI industry was shaken when a 20-year-old anti-AI activist named [Daniel Moreno-Gama](), armed with a gun and a Molotov cocktail, unsuccessfully tried to firebomb the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. No one was injured, but the high-profile incident followed a string of violent threats and at least one [OpenAI lockdown](). OpenAI isn't alone. Per the *WSJ*, around the time that Altman's home was targeted, OpenAI rival Anthropic faced a close call when a man snuck into its headquarters behind an employee carrying an envelope with an executive's name on it. The man reportedly then told a guard that the executive was "going to be killed." The man was stopped before anyone got hurt. All in all, it's easy to see why tech leaders are budgeting for beefed up security. Not all anti-AI sentiment has manifested in attempted physical violence. Activists have also shut down [data centers](), taken down [AI-powered surveillance cameras](), and protested outside AI company headquarters. As the [fight over AI data centers]() heats up, some polls have shown that AI is [less popular]() with Americans than Immigration and Customs Enforcement. People fear that AI will result in mass layoffs, a further consolidation of wealth and power, or even a catastrophic apocalypse — outcomes that [many leaders]() in the AI industry have [issued warnings about](). "That's why people are setting warehouses on fire," a former Pinterest employee named Bonnie Kate Wolf, who was laid off during an AI-focused restructuring, told the *WSJ*. "You can't go back to serfdom. It really feels like the people in power want to be kings. Historically, that doesn't work out for kings." **More on AI tensions:** *[AI Billionaires Are Starting to Get Scared]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()