Technology and Science11 September, 20262 min read
Anthropic Disrupted State-Sponsored AI Surveillance Targeting Dissidents in China, Iran, and West Africa
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State-sponsored surveillance operations disrupted by Anthropic in China, Iran, and West Africa. Targeted dissidents and minorities, including diaspora communities.
Anthropic disrupts AI spying
Anthropic said it disrupted several state-sponsored surveillance operations using its artificial intelligence models, with incidents detected between January and July and originating in China, Iran and West Africa. The report said the campaigns targeted diaspora communities, including Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, Tibetan and Falun Gong communities across Asia, and Iranian minority communities and opponents of the Iranian regime abroad.
France 24 reported that Anthropic warned governments and state-aligned actors are increasingly using AI to spy on ethnic minorities and dissidents, and said the lab shut down multiple cases of state-sponsored surveillance operations that used its AI models. In one case described by France 24, Iranian actors developed a way to identify people through their social media accounts, and in another, a contractor working for Malian national security authorities used Claude to design the underlying software that enabled the intelligence gathering.
Bioweapons and other misuses
The BBC said Anthropic identified and disrupted attempts to use its AI model for "malicious activity" which could support the development of biological weapons, describing the findings as part of a growing series of warnings from AI researchers and industry insiders. The BBC reported that Anthropic said biological misuse is "one of the most serious risks of frontier AI model" and warned that without the correct safeguards, such capabilities "could have catastrophic consequences".
The BBC also said the report listed cases where Claude was used "to develop software for conventional weapons, including firearms, missiles, armed drones, bombs, and other munitions, as well as the targeting and control systems that operate them." In the same BBC account, US Senator Bernie Sanders demanded a pause on advanced AI development and a ban on artificial superintelligence, while President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was concerned "if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position".
Cyber operations and autonomy
Hindustan Times said Anthropic’s report, named “Detecting and countering misuse of AI: September 2026”, details cyber operations identified and disrupted by Anthropic between December 2025 and August 2026, in which threat actors used the Claude AI models. Hindustan Times reported that Anthropic said AI’s role in cyber operations is becoming increasingly autonomous, with Claude being used not only as an assistant but also to execute or coordinate parts of attacks.
In one case described by Hindustan Times, a Russian state-nexus espionage actor identified by Anthropic as GTG-20006 used AI-driven workflows to automate operations from infrastructure development and phishing to maintaining access to compromised systems and stealing data. Hindustan Times also said Anthropic identified more than 20 organisations targeted in the group’s planning, reconnaissance and live operations, and quoted Anthropic warning that “the risk from AI adoption is more pronounced across the cyber kill chain, where adversaries can operate faster, across a broader and deeper surface area, with fewer resources”.