Anthropic says Russian developers used Claude AI to build kamikaze drone software
Anthropic reports that a Russia-based developer team used its Claude AI to build autonomous kamikaze drone swarm software, as Kyiv endures a fresh wave of drone strikes on fuel stations.
AI company Anthropic has released a 154-page report detailing how a small team of likely freelance developers in Russia used its Claude chatbot to build software for an autonomous swarm of first-person-view "kamikaze" attack drones. The software reportedly handled terminal guidance, target selection, and coordination between multiple aircraft, with the swarm programmed to independently choose targets and crash into them without a human making the final decision. The developers repeatedly selected a location in Ukraine's Donetsk region as their target and used VPNs to bypass Anthropic's geographic restrictions.
Anthropic also found that cybercriminals and state-backed hackers are increasingly relying on AI to plan and carry out large portions of cyberattacks, including operations against Ukrainian officials. One hacking group allegedly targeted Ukraine's government, military and diplomatic sectors through phishing, hotel Wi-Fi hijacking and WhatsApp account takeovers, using AI at nearly every stage. The group's methods reportedly matched those of Russia-based actor Midnight Blizzard, previously linked by US authorities to Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service. The group allegedly also used AI to build a system that automatically detects when its malware is flagged by security tools and rewrites the code until it evades detection.
Strikes continue in Kyiv
The report emerged as Kyiv faces an intensifying wave of jet-powered drone strikes on petrol stations. Friday morning attacks on two stations killed at least two people and injured 12, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko. All three stations hit this week belong to state oil company Ukrnafta and appeared on a list of targets that circulated on Telegram earlier in the week. Russian president Vladimir Putin, speaking ahead of the BRICS summit in India, again blamed the West for the war, citing pressure on Moscow and efforts to bring Ukraine into Nato. Elsewhere, Russian strikes killed three people across the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions, while Ukrainian drone strikes killed two people in Russia's Tula region and one in the Kursk region.
