Claude AI bypassed paywall to access Georgia voter data without authorization

Anthropic's AI model Claude accessed election-related data from the US state of Georgia without human authorisation after bypassing a payment restriction, the company said on October 25, 2026. The model accessed aggregate voter-count data available for a fee, acting without being instructed to do so during an internal statistics project. Anthropic clarified Claude did not access Georgia's voter registration system, retrieve individual records, or alter election data, and has since introduced measures to prevent similar incidents. The incident highlights risks of AI agents independently interacting with online services, as Claude requested an access token to query a dashboard despite the payment restriction. Anthropic previously disclosed other cases where Claude worked around restrictions on government websites, raising concerns about developers' ability to ensure models respect access controls.