The Fear Index
Rank 16 of 17
Loss of control
AI becoming uncontrollable or escaping the control of the people running it: superintelligence, catastrophic or existential risk, extinction, rogue or deceptive AI systems.
55
on the Fear Index
Bills5
Lobbying filings31
News237
Wikipedia43K
The receipts
43,015Wikipedia views on this fear in the last 30 days
237news articles about it in the last 30 days
5bills, resolutions, rules and orders cite it since January 2025, in 4 states and Congress
7new government controls written into those bills
31federal lobbying filings name it, past year
$1.3Mspent lobbying on it by advocacy groups, past year
In their own words
The fear as each bill's official summary or text states it, and the controls the same bill would create.
“the death or serious injury of one hundred or more people or at least one billion dollars of damages”
S 6953, New YorkPassedMandatory reportingNew agency powersUse limits2 offices“require a large frontier developer to transmit to the Office of Emergency Services a summary of any assessment of catastrophic risk, as defined, resulting from internal use of its frontier models”
SB 53, CaliforniaPassedMandatory reportingNew agency powers2 offices“establishing standards for frontier developers in addressing critical safety incidents and catastrophic risks”
HB 2800, PennsylvaniaNot passedNew agency powers2 offices“ensuring critical infrastructure facilities controlled by an artificial intelligence system can be shut down and the critical infrastructure facility can be returned to human control”
SB 212, MontanaPassedUse limits“Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act of 2026”
H.R. 10538, CongressNot passed
What it's buying
The government controls written into the bills that cite this fear.
Who's funding it
Advocacy groups and foundations lobbying on this fear, past year.
Who benefits
Agencies and officials these bills would hand new power, by number of bills.
- 1Pennsylvania Attorney General1bill
- 2Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency1bill
- 3California Attorney General1bill
- 4California Office of Emergency Services1bill
- 5New York Attorney General1bill
Everyone else lobbying
Companies, trade groups, think tanks, unions and other groups whose lobbying filings name this fear, past year.
- 1Google4 filings
- 2Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company & Affiliates4 filings
- 3Anthropic2 filings
- 4Verizon1 filing
- 5Walmart1 filing
- 6OpenAI1 filing
Money, bills and attention
Money on filings naming it
Bills citing it
Wikipedia views
Each dot is one bill. Sources: lobbying filings on LDA.gov that name this fear, the bills that cite it, and Wikipedia readership of its articles.
Latest on this fear
- Lobbying filing2026-10-21Anthropic filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $60K for the quarter across all its issues, naming H.R. 8800, S. 4784
- Lobbying filing2026-10-20Palisade Research filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $30K for the quarter across all its issues
- Lobbying filing2026-10-20National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $520K for the quarter across all its issues, naming H.R. 10362, H.R. 10519, H.R. 1734, H.R. 2770, H.R. 3460, H.R. 3775, H.R. 4142, H.R. 5227, H.R. 5388, H.R. 5784, H.R. 5885, H.R. 6304, H.R. 6875, H.R. 8037, H.R. 8094, H.R. 8623, H.R. 8664, H.R. 8819, H.R. 9352, H.R. 9363, H.R. 9619, S. 1269, S. 1290, S. 1378, S. 1638, S. 1798, S. 2177, S. 2528, S. 2750, S. 2937, S. 3108, S. 3339, S. 3354, S. 3557, S. 3957, S. 4069, S. 4307, S. 4743, S. 4916, S. 5061, S. 5417
- Lobbying filing2026-10-20Verizon Communications and Various Subsidiaries filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $2.8M for the quarter across all its issues, naming H.R. 1027, H.R. 10362, H.R. 10364, H.R. 10453, H.R. 10575, H.R. 10695, H.R. 10705, H.R. 1343, H.R. 1519, H.R. 1665, H.R. 1681, H.R. 1870, H.R. 2399, H.R. 2449, H.R. 2482, H.R. 278, H.R. 2784, H.R. 2794, H.R. 2805, H.R. 2975, H.R. 3149, H.R. 3562, H.R. 46, H.R. 4950, H.R. 5061, H.R. 5079, H.R. 5967, H.R. 6046, H.R. 6152, H.R. 6333, H.R. 651, H.R. 7022, H.R. 7294, H.R. 7386, H.R. 7757, H.R. 791, H.R. 8255, H.R. 8327, H.R. 8413, H.R. 8516, H.R. 8800, H.R. 9129, H.R. 9151, H.R. 9917, S. 1586, S. 1634, S. 1748, S. 1829, S. 1837, S. 1875, S. 3062, S. 3268, S. 3639, S. 3663, S. 3813, S. 4322, S. 4407, S. 4448, S. 4557, S. 4561, S. 4591, S. 4728, S. 4749, S. 4784, S. 4950, S. 5054, S. 5417, S. 5508, S. 5617, S. 5653, S. 792, S. 836, S. 98
- Lobbying filing2026-10-20Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company & Affiliates filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $1M for the quarter across all its issues, naming H.R. 1118, H.R. 2385, H.R. 3838, H.R. 856, H.R. 8800, S. 2296, S. 4615, S. 4784
- Lobbying filing2026-10-20Secure AI Project filed a lobbying report that mentions AI, $20K for the quarter across all its issues
The bills
The ones carrying the most controls, first.
- S 6953, New YorkPassedMandatory reportingNew agency powersUse limitsRead it on nyassembly.gov
- SB 53, CaliforniaPassedMandatory reportingNew agency powersRead it on leginfo.legislature.ca.gov
- HB 2800, PennsylvaniaNot passedNew agency powersRead it on palegis.us
- SB 212, MontanaPassedUse limitsRead it on bills.legmt.gov
- H.R. 10538, CongressNot passedRead it on congress.gov