disinformation3 articles
Anthropic's Claude Has Been Weaponised By State Hackers, Fraudsters, and Surveillance Vendors Alike
Anthropic has published a report revealing that its Claude AI models are being exploited by a wide range of malicious actors — including state-sponsored hackers, cybercriminals, and commercial spyware vendors — for purposes such as cyberattacks, mass surveillance, weapons development, and influence operations. The company introduced the term "Generative Threat Groups" (GTGs) to categorise these actors, highlighting cases involving Russian, Chinese, Iranian, and other operators using Claude in increasingly autonomous, multi-agent frameworks to conduct reconnaissance, credential harvesting, and data exfiltration at scale. Anthropic warned that AI has effectively erased the resource gap that once separated sophisticated state actors from individual operators, while expressing hope that sharing these findings will help governments and the industry develop stronger safeguards.
OpenAI Exposes Russian Influence Network Using ChatGPT to Fake a Think Tank
OpenAI banned a cluster of Russian ChatGPT accounts that used VPNs to bypass access restrictions and run an influence operation, generating social media content to promote a fictitious Israeli think tank called the International Burke Institute (IBI). The operation centred on a fabricated "Sovereignty Index" designed to portray Russia favourably and criticise Western nations, with content distributed across platforms including Telegram, X, and LinkedIn, though it reached only relatively small audiences. OpenAI noted that while AI played a limited direct role in content creation, it helped expose the broader infrastructure the actors had built to manufacture credibility and obscure their Russian origins.
EU Researchers Say Big Tech Is Running Out the Clock on Platform Transparency
European researchers studying disinformation on social media platforms are struggling to access data despite being legally entitled to it under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), with platforms like X and TikTok imposing technical barriers, narrow eligibility criteria, and burdensome security requirements. The issue is highlighted by the case of Romanian researcher Adriana Iamnitchi, whose DSA data request to TikTok was denied before the 2024 Romanian election, potentially preventing her from identifying coordinated networks that promoted far-right candidate Calin Georgescu — who went on to win the first round with 23% of the vote. While the EU has taken some enforcement action, including fining X €120 million, researchers remain cautious about whether recent regulatory changes will meaningfully improve access in practice.