Anthropic said in a report that a UAE-linked influence operation used Claude AI to target the Muslim Brotherhood. The operation used around 300 fake social-media accounts, created a front NGO, ghost-wrote testimony to be used at the UN, and compiled files on European lawmakers, journalists, and UN officials. The company traced the campaign “with high confidence to UAE government officials.” The UAE Foreign Ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Abu Dhabi has designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization since 2014 and made countering political Islam a pillar of its regional policy. The US considers the Brotherhood’s Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Sudanese branches as terrorist organizations.
The campaign was far from the report’s most troubling example of AI misuse. Anthropic also uncovered Russian cyber attacks, Chinese surveillance of Uyghurs, and Yemeni-developed software for armed drones, bombs, missiles, and other weapons.
