Axios: A must read: Malign actors … “One man used Claude to help build surveillance for 25 million phones…”

Posted on September 12, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
How bad actors exploit AI
 
Illustration of the Earth with the only continent visible in the shape of a skull. 
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
 
AI is tearing down barriers that have long constrained the world’s most dangerous actors. A handful of people can now mount operations that once required legions of spies, engineers or hackers, Axios’ Zachary Basu writes.

Anthropic — the safety-focused lab behind Claude — says it spent the past eight months tracking and disrupting attempts to misuse its models. The company’s latest threat report shows how today’s models are already helping U.S. adversaries develop kamikaze drones, hunt dissidents and conduct dangerous virus research.

Among the most alarming cases:

1. An Iran-linked operation used Claude to help target U.S. naval forces. Claude helped build targeting handbooks tracking ship positions, U.S. personnel, aircraft and ship identifiers, satellite imagery and websites exposing naval movements.

2. Claude served as an engineer for a Yemeni team building missiles.A weapons cell in northern Yemen relied on Claude Code to develop guidance software for rockets and missiles. After one guided-rocket test apparently failed, they returned to Claude within hours to diagnose what went wrong.

3. A China-linked operation used Claude to hunt Uyghurs. Anthropic says the actor sifted through more than 100 WhatsApp groups and dozens of Telegram channels to identify Uyghurs in Syria who could be pressured or paid to report on armed Uyghur groups.

4. One man used Claude to help build surveillance for 25 million phones.

A consultant in Mali relied on Claude as the main engineering force behind a nationwide system capable of collecting call records, texts and voice traffic. The system could generate intelligence dossiers on any phone number without a warrant.

5. Claude refused dangerous virus research — so the request went to another

AI.Researchers on a state-backed grant were trying to alter chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus, to spread more easily or evade immune defenses. The work was intended for a military research institute. Claude blocked the most sensitive requests, but the service researchers were using routed them to a rival model with weaker safeguards — a stark reminder that one lab’s safety rules only go so far.Share this story.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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