Iran used American-developed artificial-intelligence models to try to target US Navy ships in the Middle East, according to an Anthropic report warning of emerging national-security dangers, the Wall Street Journal reported. An Iranian-linked group compiled information from ship and aircraft transponders, military photographs and commercial satellite photos to track American warships and look for vulnerabilities in their ship-born communications, the report found. Anthropic said it disrupted the plot by the 'threat actor,' which used the advanced AI Claude model.
The finding was one of several threats outlined in the 154-page report that offered up a playbook of how U.S. adversaries are using AI in novel ways that pose serious threats to national security: developing new missiles and aggressive disinformation campaigns, spying on dissidents, and even pursuing the potential development of biological weapons. Top AI companies and security firms regularly publish threat reports involving the technology to inform the public and their partners about potential dangers.
The allegations detailed by the Anthropic report come amid a nationwide debate on whether policymakers fully grasp the threats and changes that AI poses to national security in the coming decades. Anthropic's rules don't allow it to be used to build weapons, conduct surveillance or carry out violence. But people often sought to obscure their intentions and persistently tried new approaches when Claude rejected their requests.
A top researcher at Anthropic quit this week over fears that AI companies were developing systems they couldn't control, while other Anthropic employees warned that AI could wipe out humanity if not properly contained. 'We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans!' Evan Hubinger, another top scientist at Anthropic wrote in a social-media post. 'I personally think it is >10% within the next decade. I believe Anthropic is trying its best, but we do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to,' he said.