Chinese state-linked actors used AI assistant Claude to target dissidents, religious groups

According to Anthropics Sept. 10 threat intelligence report, the actors targeted communities that are suppressed by Beijing and used the AI model to compile dossiers on religious leaders and identify possible vulnerabilities or pressure points that the Chinese regime could exploit. Anthropic said the Chinese actors were using AI to carry out tasks that would traditionally require a team of analysts. The company described the activity as part of efforts by sophisticated threat actors to test AI safeguards, warning that such risks are likely to grow as the technology continues to advance, as highlighted by TET.

The report said that one individual operating an account identified himself as an information security officer working for the Chinese state. Anthropic assessed the accounts as being connected to a China-based intelligence operation, noting that their activities closely followed the priorities of Chinas religious affairs apparatus, the countrys top intelligence agency, and the United Front Work Department, the party-state organization responsible for co-opting the Chinese diaspora and targeting critics of the regime.

Anthropic said it banned the accounts involved and enhanced its systems to identify similar activities. In one campaign, the company identified an operator managing what it described as a religious affairs intelligence collection desk. The user employed Claude to launch four simultaneous work streams, where the AI model processed information in several languages, translated the material, and generated Chinese-language dossiers, reports, and daily briefings, TET reported.

The operation focused on senior Catholic cardinals across Asia, leadership of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, Tibetan Buddhists and leaders living in exile, Falun Gong practitioners, and NTD. The actors gathered information from Chinese platforms including WeChat, RedNote, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and Weibo, along with Western platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, X, and Facebook.

The information collected included sensitive personal details such as birthdays and immigration dates. The actors also attempted to identify and map religious locations using floor plans, images of building facades, and structural diagrams. According to the report, the information-gathering cycle was conducted daily and appeared to be designed for internal state security offices.

Anthropic said the actors instructed Claude to gather information about a targets activities related to China, any negative information, as well as personal or organisational weaknesses that could potentially be used as leverage, as cited by TET.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice that focuses on meditative exercises and the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. It was first introduced publicly in China in 1992 and rapidly expanded through word of mouth, reaching an estimated 70 million to 100 million practitioners by the end of the decade.

The Chinese Communist Party launched a nationwide campaign of persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999. Since then, millions of practitioners have faced arbitrary detention, forced labour, and torture, while some have also died as a result of forced organ harvesting, according to TET. (ANI)