{
  "id": 6713601,
  "title": "China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/china-iran-among-countries-that-have-used-ai-to-aid-spying-anthropic-6713601",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-11T04:52:17.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu - Sci-Tech",
    "slug": "the-hindu-sci-tech",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/china-iran-among-countries-that-have-used-ai-to-aid-spying-anthropic-says/article71454731.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Anthropic, an AI laboratory based in San Francisco, has reported shutting down several state-sponsored surveillance campaigns that utilized its AI models. These operations, which took place between January and July, were traced back to China, Iran, and West Africa, according to a report on the misuse of Anthropic's models. The surveillance efforts targeted diaspora and dissident communities, including pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong, Tibetan and Falun Gong followers across Asia, and Iranian minorities and regime critics abroad. The report highlighted that AI is being increasingly used for espionage, replacing the need for an engineering workforce.\n\nIn one case, Iranian actors employed AI to identify individuals through their social media accounts, while a contractor in Mali used Anthropic's AI to develop software for intelligence gathering. Furthermore, Anthropic discovered that Chinese developers were deceitfully using its AI, Claude, to generate responses to user queries while simultaneously distilling that data to improve their own models. This distillation process involves using one AI model to train another, a technique that Chinese developers have been accused of using without permission, thereby stealing resources from American AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI. Notably, Moonshot and Deepseek, two Chinese AI developers, were found to have secretly utilized Claude to generate responses to Anthropic's users over a ten-day period, relaying nearly 300,000 customer requests through a network of 5,380 fraudulent accounts, primarily located in Singapore and Japan. Some of this data may have contained sensitive user information, potentially breaching privacy agreements.\n\nAnthropic also detected and blocked research related to biological weapons, involving working scientists who were not found to have malicious intentions. The research focused on the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, a highly-pathogenic strain, as well as other dangerous viruses, including strains of bird flu, venomous substances, and the virus responsible for mpox. The report emphasized that identifying these individuals or their research institutions could expose them to harm. Apart from surveillance and bio-weapons research, Anthropic also disrupted potential threats such as weapon design, questionable biological research, and dating scams.",
  "summary": "Now Anthropic alleges that China's Moonshot and Deepseek have also secretly used Claude to generate answers given to its users",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 10,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Al-Monitor",
        "title": "China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/china-iran-among-countries-that-have-used-ai-to-aid-spying-anthropic-6682898",
        "published": "2026-09-11T01:30:25.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Korea Times",
        "title": "China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/china-iran-among-countries-that-have-used-ai-to-aid-spying-anthropic",
        "published": "2026-09-11T01:57:03.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Indian Express",
        "title": "Anthropic blocks weapons work queries on Claude AI from China, Russia users",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/anthropic-blocks-weapons-work-queries-on-claude-ai-from-china-russia",
        "published": "2026-09-11T03:49:50.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Hindustan Times - World News",
        "title": "Anthropic says it caught China using Claude to develop an anti-torpedo weapon",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/anthropic-says-it-caught-china-using-claude-to-develop-an-anti",
        "published": "2026-09-11T04:07:25.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Tech in Asia",
        "title": "Anthropic says China AI labs used Claude to train models",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/anthropic-says-china-ai-labs-used-claude-to-train-models",
        "published": "2026-09-11T05:05:18.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Times of India",
        "title": "Houthis using AI for missiles? Anthropic says Yemen weapons cell using Claude",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/houthis-using-ai-for-missiles-anthropic-says-yemen-weapons-cell-using",
        "published": "2026-09-11T05:32:27.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The National UAE",
        "title": "How Yemeni rebels used Anthropic's AI software to design and build guided weapons",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/how-yemeni-rebels-used-anthropics-ai-software-to-design-and-build",
        "published": "2026-09-11T05:34:50.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Punch Nigeria",
        "title": "Anthropic flags five Claude AI uses linked to biological weapons research",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/anthropic-flags-five-claude-ai-uses-linked-to-biological-weapons",
        "published": "2026-09-11T07:14:37.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Dawn",
        "title": "China, Iran among countries that have used AI to aid spying, Anthropic says",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/china-iran-among-countries-that-have-used-ai-to-aid-spying-anthropic-6737395",
        "published": "2026-09-11T09:01:56.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}