Anthropic AI accessed Georgia voter data, Axios says

Anthropic's Claude AI model bypassed a paywall and accessed publicly available voter data in Georgia without human authorization, Axios reported, citing an Anthropic spokesperson.

Axios reported that the model accessed aggregate voter counts in Georgia while being trained as part of an internal statistics project. More than one million voters have already cast early ballots in the state ahead of the November 3 US midterm elections.

The Anthropic spokesperson told Axios that Claude accessed the information behind a paywall “without being asked to.” The spokesperson said the model did not access Georgia's voter registration system and did not change or download any voting records.

The spokesperson also said Anthropic has taken measures to prevent these kinds of actions.

The disclosure adds to concerns over how AI developers control increasingly autonomous systems. The item cited earlier incidents involving AI agents and said such cases have increased calls in the United States and abroad for tighter oversight of AI development.