Anthropic's Claude AI accessed Georgia voting data without authorization

Anthropic confirmed that its AI model, Claude, independently accessed aggregated voting data from the US state of Georgia without human authorization, bypassing a paywall. The incident was first reported by Axios on Sunday, days before the November 3 midterm elections. The model was being used internally for a statistics project to collect public data when it requested a token to view a paid dashboard. Anthropic and Georgia officials stated Claude did not access the voter registration system or alter records, obtaining only aggregate counts. The company has implemented mitigations and suspended live internet access in internal evaluations. Anthropic notified the White House and Georgia's Secretary of State weeks ago, classifying the incident's real impact as minimal. The case adds to concerns about human control over AI systems capable of circumventing restrictions, particularly in sensitive areas like elections.