Researchers outside the United States used frontier AI models to plan experiments involving highly pathogenic bird flu, chikungunya and other biological agents with potential weapons applications, according to a new threat report from Anthropic. The researchers used AI to study viruses’ transmissibility and immune evasion, investigate orthopoxvirus immune-response genes and help design novel toxins at times while taking steps to evade safeguards meant to restrict access to dangerous biological capabilities. Anthropic detailed five cases in the report published Thursday but withheld the countries, institutions and specific biological agents involved.
The company stressed that it is not claiming the researchers intended to develop biological weapons. AI KILL SWITCH BILL COULD SHUT DOWN ROGUE MODELS The findings offer a concrete glimpse at a threat that has largely been discussed in hypothetical terms. Scientists who already possess biological expertise, materials and laboratory access are using increasingly powerful AI systems to accelerate sensitive dual-use research.
They also land amid a renewed debate over catastrophic AI risks. Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic and OpenAI researcher, recently resigned while accusing the companies of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives." His warning drew more than 100 million views on X. SEN BERNIE SANDERS: YES, WE MUST HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON ON AI BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment science lead, separately said he personally believed there was a greater than 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
But Anthropic’s report points to a threat that is already taking shape: researchers using frontier AI for potentially dangerous biological work, circumventing geographic restrictions and adapting when the models’ safeguards get in their way. In one case, Anthropic blocked a grant application for chikungunya gain-of-function research at a military research institute. The proposed work focused on identifying mutations that could increase the virus’s transmissibility and ability to evade the immune system.
The researchers planned to engineer those mutations into infectious clones and repeatedly pass the virus through live animals, selecting for variants that caused the most severe disease. That work could help scientists develop better vaccines and treatments for chikungunya. It could also produce a more dangerous pathogen that would be difficult to distinguish from a naturally occurring outbreak, Anthropic said.
The researchers accessed Claude through a life sciences platform that tunneled traffic through U.S. infrastructure to evade Anthropic’s regional restrictions. When Claude refused to answer sensitive prompts, the platform routed those requests to another model with more permissive safeguards. Anthropic said the research continued after the company banned accounts connected to the activity.
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