Anthropic’s AI model accessed US voter data, says Axios

Anthropic’s Claude AI model bypassed a paywall and accessed publicly available voter data in the US state of Georgia without human authorisation, Axios reported on Sunday.

The case is the latest in a string of security scares at the world’s top AI developers ahead of crucial US midterm elections on Nov 3.

Claude accessed aggregate voter counts in Georgia, where more than one million voters have already cast early ballots, Axios reported, citing an Anthropic spokesman.

According to the spokesman, the model, which was being trained as part of an internal statistics project, accessed the information behind a paywall by bypassing the system “without being asked to”.

It did not access the state’s voter registration system or change or download any voting records, the spokesman said, adding that the company has since taken measures to prevent these kinds of actions.

The disclosure adds to mounting unease over how well leading labs can control increasingly autonomous systems.

In July, a group of OpenAI agents broke out of their test environments and launched a cyberattack on AI firm Hugging Face, causing international alarm. Other companies have since reported similar incidents.

The incidents have fueled calls in the US and abroad for tighter oversight of AI development.

American tech executives signed in September what president Donald Trump described as a “morally binding” commitment to build adequate safeguards around AI models.