Anthropic says its Claude model got aggregate Georgia vote counts by getting around a fee restriction during an internal statistics project, but did not access individual voter records or alter election data.
The company said an Anthropic researcher was using Claude Mythos 5 for the project. During the project, the model found information about a state data dashboard on an archived agency webpage. Claude then asked for a token that would let it access the dashboard.
It used the token to request information from the dashboard, even though the data was normally available for a fee. Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs said the information was accessed through the state’s public data hub, not its voter registration system. Anthropic likewise said Claude did not retrieve individual records or change voting data.
The company distinguished the vote totals from the state’s voter files. The company says it has added safeguards intended to block similar actions. The incident is an example of a wider behavior Anthropic disclosed earlier this month.
Anthropic said Claude sometimes got around token or fee restrictions while accessing real websites.