Articles

Axios12:01

CEO confidence drops into negative territory

Data: The Conference Board and The Business Council; Chart: Axios/Emily Peck CEO confidence in the U.S. economy sank into negative territory earlier this month, finds a survey out Thursday morning from the Conference Board . Why it matters: Business leaders are mind-melding with most consumers, whose opinions on the economy are now lower than during the pandemic . Such sour sentiment is shaping up as a key issue in the midterms just weeks away. Where it stands: The CEO Confidence Index fell to 46 in the most recent period, down from 52 just three months ago — any number below 50 connotes negative sentiment. The nonprofit Conference Board and the Business Council surveyed 131 Fortune 500 CEOs from Sept. 21-Oct. 5. The survey measures how chief executives at major public companies feel about current economic conditions and their expectations for the economy and their own industries over the next six months. By the numbers: 41% of CEOs expected economic conditions to worsen — up from 19% in the previous quarter. Executives' concerns over cybersecurity, AI and geopolitics rose significantly from three months ago. 94% of CEOs cited cybersecurity threats among their top AI-related concerns. The surge in energy prices — particularly diesel, which is crucial to companies' energy costs — also contributed to the fall in sentiment, Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, tells Axios. "All these inflationary shocks, one after the the other, is weighing down on the confidence of both CEOs and consumers," she says. Between the lines: The key worry when CEO moods darken is

North America · Cybersecurity

Axios11:00

Scoop: The FTC demanded documents from AI giants over recent safety incidents

The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sent civil subpoenas to AI giants seeking documents about safety incidents that have spiraled into an industry crisis . The FTC sought documents from Anthropic and OpenAI in a probe focused on potential consumer protection violations, a person familiar told Axios. Why it matters: The investigation is one of a number of steps the administration has taken to show a firm hand with AI companies after multiple incidents in which unreleased models hacked websites or took deceptive or aggressive steps in testing. State of play: The agency on Wednesday sent out civil investigative demands, which help the government gather evidence and investigate ahead of potential litigation. They are more than 50 pages long each and ask for documents concerning security incidents and safeguarding practices. The agency is also asking for marketing materials and documents detailing company privacy policies, the source said. Investigative demands will be sent to third-party AI organizations at a later date, the person familiar said. Zoom in: The FTC plans to compel top AI executives to testify about their products, according to the source. The agency has investigative authority to examine actions related to consumer harms that could be seen as unfair or deceptive. Those can relate to a wide range of misbehavior, including how companies charge for services or if they're alleged to have misled users. AI companies continue to face scrutiny about the safety of their products. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has echoed the view of other administration figures and execu

North America · Cybersecurity

Axios11:00

Scoop: "OG" Bill Gates returns to wage war on AI risks

Bill Gates is gearing up to dramatically expand his AI safety push , personally leaning on business leaders and considering a major deployment of his resources, sources tell Axios. Why it matters : The formidable, sharp-elbowed Bill Gates who built Microsoft is back, and he's directing his competitive fire toward what he has come to see as one of the most important causes of his lifetime. "I can reach CEOs on this better than you can," Gates told one person he consulted on AI safety, showing an eagerness for combat that associates say is a return to "OG" form. Driving the news : Once a voice for optimism on AI, Gates has grown dismayed by an escalation of model capabilities, alarming security incidents and what he sees as insufficient regulation, sources say. As he prepared to make the case for a far more robust regulatory framework on AI, he conferred extensively with leading AI executives, researchers, and safety advocates, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. That process led Gates to see containing AI risks as one of the most important issues he will engage with in his lifetime, the people said. Behind the scenes : People Gates has spoken to called his advocacy a "comeback tour," an attempt to rebuild a legacy that has been tarnished by his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Gates has said he's aware that some people may dismiss his warnings due to the Epstein ties. "What I did do, in some ways, was very limited, and it was motivated by my desire to raise money," Gates told Axios in August. "But ... it was a huge mistake." However, Gates sees the stakes as too high

North America · Cybersecurity

CSIS02:00

Cambodia’s Scam Center Cleanup: Is It Working?

East Asia · Cybersecurity · Global politics

Axios14 Oct

AI tools are aiding would-be spies

AI tools are now exacerbating a largely hidden problem that frontier AI companies have been contending with for years: the risk that employees will exploit their access to spy on their employers. Why it matters: The same AI tools that companies are racing to release can also help people plan crimes and develop the technology to carry them out, creating another security headache for the companies building them. Driving the news: Federal prosecutors charged Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national who has been an OpenAI engineer since July 2025, with allegedly attempting to intercept private conversations at OpenAI. Around Sept. 30, the company found a "surreptitious audio recording device" that was plugged into a USB port in the back of a television in an executive conference room. OpenAI said in a post on X that it used its own AI models to help "understand the device and where it had come from." Zoom in: Investigators allege Alfozan used AI tools to research company meeting rooms and develop recording equipment, according to an FBI affidavit . Alfozan used a "productivity agent" to ask basic information about OpenAI's offices, the documents say. Those queries included: "What meeting was this presented at and when was it record?," "List meeting rooms in (company) that are 6+", and "can you list today's meeting in this room." Investigators also said that an AI chatbot account tied to his spouse asked the model to build a "continuous audio recorder" and to add "browser access an controls," as well as encrypt the memory card where the recordings were saved. The complaint didn't s

North America · Cybersecurity

Carnegie Endowment14 Oct

In the Kremlin’s AI Propaganda Blitz, the Noise Is the Signal

Russia’s AI-driven propaganda campaigns operate in a fragmented, chaotic, and often illogical manner. That’s not necessarily a problem for the Kremlin, though: It’s much easier to mimic genuine public debate that way.

Europe · Cybersecurity

Axios13 Oct

Companies are building with AI — and exposing new security risks

The amount of AI-related infrastructure exposed to the public internet jumped 63% in nine months, according to new Censys data shared first with Axios. Why it matters: The AI boom isn't just creating new models and chatbots. It's creating a sprawling layer of software that companies will also need to inventory, patch and secure. Threat level: Many of these tools connect AI applications to sensitive corporate data and other services, creating potential entry points for hackers looking to access company systems. "It's a little bit beyond just like the tool itself, but these [tools] talk to some really sensitive systems," Emily Austin, a principal researcher at Censys and co-author of the report, told Axios. The big picture: Censys identified nearly 268,000 internet-facing systems running 44 different AI-related products as of July, up from roughly 164,000 in October 2025. These include the software used to connect AI models to databases, corporate applications and other services. Between the lines: The ease of building and hosting AI applications is making it harder for companies to keep track of what software employees are using and whether it's secure. Censys CEO Zakir Durumeric told Axios that companies were already struggling to keep track of their existing software even before employees started building their own AI applications. These new AI apps can often connect to sensitive company information, such as emails, financial records and internal databases. Zoom in: The most widely exposed product was n8n, a workflow automation platform that can connect AI agents to other

Cybersecurity

Brookings12 Oct

Shaping global governance of AI agents

Cybersecurity · Global politics

Council on Foreign Relations9 Oct

Russia’s Attacks in Europe Are Escalating. Here Is How to Push Back.

European countries have been too slow and too reactive in response to escalating Russian attacks. They need a coordinated playbook.

Europe · Defense · Cybersecurity

Axios9 Oct

Scoop: AI companies plot "day after" scenarios for public revolt

Top executives at Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI companies are privately gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt after a catastrophic AI event . Why it matters: These officials anticipate a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack, that shuts down access to financial services, internet connectivity, or even power and water. The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, as well as President Trump for his reluctance to regulate it. Threat level: While scenario planning is common within many companies and national security settings — the Pentagon has been running war games for decades — the difference is that many top AI researchers and executives believe a major incident is inevitable . "OpenAI conducts preparedness exercises where teams discuss and work through a range of potential scenarios," a company spokesperson said. "These scenarios are not treated as inevitable, but are meant to help us prepare for a variety of circumstances." Anthropic declined to comment. Zoom in: The blame game will start whether a rogue-agent swarm breaks containment from an internal testing environment or a bad actor finds unexpected ways to use available models. A recent campaign targeting South Korean financial organizations — including reported breaches at two banks — shows the damage one person can do. A hacker from China allegedly used AI tools from China-developed models, including DeepSeek, to steal data

North America · Cybersecurity

Clingendael9 Oct

Effects of hybrid conflict on escalation management

Europe · Defense · Cybersecurity · Global politics

Axios8 Oct

Exclusive: Anthropic's plan to protect critical infrastructure

Anthropic is launching a new cybersecurity initiative designed to bring its most powerful AI models and engineers to companies protecting power grids, water utilities and other critical infrastructure, the company first shared with Axios. Why it matters: Critical infrastructure operators are struggling to secure aging, complex systems as AI threatens to make cyberattacks faster and cheaper to execute. Driving the news: Under its new Critical Infrastructure Defense Program, Anthropic will provide its frontier AI models, onsite engineers and threat research to companies already responsible for securing critical infrastructure systems. Participating companies will use these resources to identify and fix vulnerabilities in their customers' systems. The program's founding partners include Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, CrowdStrike, Deloitte, Dragos, Hitachi, Insane Cyber, Nozomi Networks, Palo Alto Networks, PwC and Rockwell Automation. Anthropic said several partners are already using Claude to fix vulnerabilities and help customers do the same. Zoom in: Anthropic is also launching a free AI-powered vulnerability scanning service for open-source software projects, called OSS Scanner. Participating projects will receive periodic scans from Claude, along with automated reports detailing vulnerabilities, how they could be exploited and suggested fixes. The reports won't undergo human review before being sent to software maintainers, meaning some findings could be inaccurate. The big picture: Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI developers are looking for ways to put their most powerful

North America · Cybersecurity