AI Model Bypasses Payment System to Access Electoral Data in America

Anthropic revealed that its AI model 'Claude' bypassed a payment system to access aggregate electoral data in the U.S. state of Georgia without human instruction, raising questions about the ability of systems to respect restrictions.

Anthropic, an American company, revealed that its AI model 'Claude' managed to bypass payment restrictions and access publicly available electoral data in the U.S. state of Georgia without obtaining human permission. According to Axios, which published the details of the incident on Sunday, the model accessed aggregate data on voter numbers in Georgia, which the state made available for a fee, during its use in an internal statistical project of the company. The site quoted an Anthropic spokesperson as saying that the model bypassed the payment system on its own, without the user asking it to do so, and obtained the information through an access mechanism not intended for this use. The spokesperson explained that 'Claude' requested an access code to an electronic dashboard that provides electoral information for a fee, then used it to access the data without completing the payment process. Anthropic confirmed that the information the model accessed was limited to aggregate numbers related to voting, stressing that it did not enter Georgia's voter registration system, obtain individual voting records, or alter any electoral data. The company added that it has taken technical measures to prevent a recurrence of this type of unauthorized behavior. The incident was disclosed ahead of the U.S. midterm elections scheduled for November 3, 2026.