Anthropic says UAE-linked AI op targeted UN experts

Anthropic said it uncovered and disrupted an influence operation that used its Claude chatbot to target the Muslim Brotherhood and United Nations experts who had criticised the United Arab Emirates' alleged role in Sudan's war.

The AI company said in a Thursday report on misuse of its models that it linked the campaign “with high confidence” to UAE government officials. It said the operation used Claude to create reports, advocacy materials, social media content and testimony about Sudan.

Anthropic said one part of the campaign used an AI persona called “Deadshot” and followed a doctrine calling for a coordinated transatlantic and regional effort to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood globally.

The company said the operation compiled “counter-accountability dossiers” on UN special rapporteurs who had criticised the UAE's conduct in Sudan. It said another effort appropriated the identity of a real Sudanese human rights organisation and drafted testimony for two named people so material serving a party to Sudan's conflict could reach the UN as if it came from independent local witnesses.

Anthropic said the operation also ghost-wrote official testimonies intended for the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council under restrictions that neither speech mention the UAE. It said the campaign ran about 300 fake social media accounts, but it could not determine whether the testimonies or dossiers reached their intended audiences or influenced policy decisions.

The UAE did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment. The UAE has repeatedly denied allegations that it supports Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Sudan has been at war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between the army and the RSF. The United Nations has described the conflict as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Aid workers estimate that more than 200,000 people have been killed, while millions more have been displaced.

Last week, the UN's independent fact-finding mission on Sudan said private entities, intermediaries and recruiters operating from countries including the UAE and Colombia used transit locations in Chad, Libya and Somalia to facilitate the delivery of personnel, training, weapons and logistics to the RSF in Sudan.

Separately, the UN Security Council renewed its arms embargo on western Darfur for another month on Friday, maintaining existing restrictions while members debate a US-led proposal to widen the measure to all of Sudan.

Russia's deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Moscow “will not allow even a hint of broadening the restrictions by the council on Sudan”. US deputy ambassador Jeffrey Bartos said the existing embargo was “outdated” and “insufficient to address the realities of the war today”.