Anthropic has disrupted several attempts to use its artificial intelligence models for research that could help develop biological weapons, the United States technology company has reported. The firm listed the cases in a report issued on Thursday outlining misuse of its models, including the chatbot Claude, over the past eight months. Concern continues to rise over the potential dangers posed by AI development. Anthropic said it could not determine whether the research was legitimate or malicious, as inquiry that leads to vaccines can also help engineer dangerous pathogens.
The company said it erred on the side of caution. In one case in May, a scientist sought help with a grant application to engineer mutations to chikungunya – a mosquito-borne virus similar to malaria – to make it more harmful in live animals. Anthropic said the case was worrying in part because it could tell the work was intended for a military research institute. It banned the accounts involved. “What we don’t know is if the research was meant to be weaponised,” Jacob Klein, Anthropic’s head of threat intelligence, told The New York Times.
Andrew Weber of the Council on Strategic Risks, who reviewed the report before its release, told the newspaper that access to such models should be limited to trusted researchers. Anthropic said evaluations of its older models last year found they could not meaningfully assist dangerous biological research, but newer models can complete complex scientific work. The same report set out bids to use Claude for missile projects and espionage. Two days before the report, a researcher quit Anthropic, saying the race to develop AI could wipe out humanity.
President Donald Trump late on Thursday dismissed the rising concerns regarding the technology. Speaking to reporters, Trump said he is concerned that the US will be in a “very bad position” if it does not lead the AI race. Asked if he has concerns that AI could lead to human extinction, he said: “No, I don’t have any.”
