New York
Anthropic’s AI submits false tip on an unsolved homicide case
NEW YORK (AP) — An Anthropic artificial intelligence model submitted a false tip to a Philadelphia police website about an unsolved homicide case, authorities and Anthropic said.
It’s the latest example of AI models acting in unintended ways and manipulating government and other websites during tests. In a report Friday, Anthropic also disclosed a separate incident when its AI model submitted forms to an undisclosed government website instead of stopping before submission.
The incident in Philadelphia occurred on July 18 when the AI model Claude Haiku 4.5 was tasked with generating and performing example tasks on randomly selected webpages, Anthropic said.
Claude filled out a form on police site PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com indicating it might have information regarding an unsolved murder listed on the site.
Philadelphia Police said in a statement they were unaware of the incident until Anthropic notified them on Wednesday. Then they found the submission in the website’s tip records and confirmed it was marked spam and never forwarded to police.
There are rising concerns about AI companies’ unchecked AI agents meddling with everything from U.S. government websites to healthcare data. Critics have been calling for more regulation.
In September, another AI company, OpenAI, disclosed six reports of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in artificial-intelligence models.
“Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers,” the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement. “Technology companies must take all appropriate steps necessary to prevent their systems from submitting false information to law enforcement.”
Anthropic said in its report that most of the reported behaviors are forms of what it calls “persistence” — “in which Claude, when it cannot complete a task as given, works around a restriction instead of stopping.”
The company said it was modifying its training to “reduce the likelihood of further misbehavior.”
Anthropic said it briefed the White House on cases that involved U.S. government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, and notified each agency involved.
Florida
Fugitive taken into U.S. custody in bribery case
MIAMI (AP) — A businessman wanted for years in the U.S. for allegedly paying bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for lucrative state contracts in Venezuela has been taken into custody.
Alvaro Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his longtime business partner, Alex Saab, a one-time ally of ousted President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department had been offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
Pulido, 62, was taken into U.S. custody after an investigation led by the DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agencies, American officials said Sunday.
It’s unclear how Pulido ended up in U.S. custody. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“No amount of time or distance will stop” the Justice Department “from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom,” he wrote.
Venezuelan authorities have so far been silent about the arrest, reflecting the challenge acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces in appeasing elements of the ruling coalition that want her to resist attempts by the Trump administration to round up scores of Venezuelan insiders wanted by the U.S., sometimes for years, for serious crimes ranging from corruption to drug trafficking.
The Colombian-born Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sprawling crackdown on corruption inside state-run oil company PDVSA that was led by Rodríguez while she was serving as Maduro’s vice president. She took over as Venezuela’s acting president following the U.S. military’s ouster of Maduro in January.
Prosecutors allege that Pulido, together with Saab, created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies in exchange for more than $2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.
Prior to these alleged offenses, Pulido had a prolific history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias of German Enrique Rubio, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.
Saab, who also hails from Colombia, was deported to the U.S. by Rodríguez in May. Last month, he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and other individuals and forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.
Washington
Federal judge orders Trump administration to halt work for a day on historic DC golf course
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree cutting at the East Potomac Golf Course, a historic D.C. golf course that has been part of President Donald Trump’s plans to remake the city.
Reyes issued the order following a tense three-hour hearing in which she blistered the government for having deceived her with its actions over the holiday weekend.
Reyes said the 24-hour temporary order could be extended to 14 days if necessary. It was limited to one day while the government tries to find a key Trump administration official to discuss why a massive tree-cutting at the park needed to occur over the holiday weekend, with little notification to plaintiffs in a lawsuit trying to halt renovation plans or the judge.
The hearing started with a blistering 15-minute statement from Reyes, who has declined repeated motions from the plaintiffs to halt work by the administration out of concern that its strategy has seemed to be move ahead on projects despite court actions.
“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes said. “I do not know how I could have made it any plainer that I did not want what was to happen, to happen.” The judge added: “I have given the government every single benefit of the doubt that it would not do precisely what it has done.”
The emergency hearing on a holiday expanded as the judge ordered the government to get various participants in the decision-making process into the hearing remotely.
Anthropic’s AI submits false tip on an unsolved homicide case
NEW YORK (AP) — An Anthropic artificial intelligence model submitted a false tip to a Philadelphia police website about an unsolved homicide case, authorities and Anthropic said.
It’s the latest example of AI models acting in unintended ways and manipulating government and other websites during tests. In a report Friday, Anthropic also disclosed a separate incident when its AI model submitted forms to an undisclosed government website instead of stopping before submission.
The incident in Philadelphia occurred on July 18 when the AI model Claude Haiku 4.5 was tasked with generating and performing example tasks on randomly selected webpages, Anthropic said.
Claude filled out a form on police site PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com indicating it might have information regarding an unsolved murder listed on the site.
Philadelphia Police said in a statement they were unaware of the incident until Anthropic notified them on Wednesday. Then they found the submission in the website’s tip records and confirmed it was marked spam and never forwarded to police.
There are rising concerns about AI companies’ unchecked AI agents meddling with everything from U.S. government websites to healthcare data. Critics have been calling for more regulation.
In September, another AI company, OpenAI, disclosed six reports of “unexpected or concerning” behavior in artificial-intelligence models.
“Unsolved cases involve real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers,” the Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement. “Technology companies must take all appropriate steps necessary to prevent their systems from submitting false information to law enforcement.”
Anthropic said in its report that most of the reported behaviors are forms of what it calls “persistence” — “in which Claude, when it cannot complete a task as given, works around a restriction instead of stopping.”
The company said it was modifying its training to “reduce the likelihood of further misbehavior.”
Anthropic said it briefed the White House on cases that involved U.S. government agencies at the federal, state and local levels, and notified each agency involved.
Florida
Fugitive taken into U.S. custody in bribery case
MIAMI (AP) — A businessman wanted for years in the U.S. for allegedly paying bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for lucrative state contracts in Venezuela has been taken into custody.
Alvaro Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his longtime business partner, Alex Saab, a one-time ally of ousted President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department had been offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
Pulido, 62, was taken into U.S. custody after an investigation led by the DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agencies, American officials said Sunday.
It’s unclear how Pulido ended up in U.S. custody. He is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.
“His alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it,” Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“No amount of time or distance will stop” the Justice Department “from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom,” he wrote.
Venezuelan authorities have so far been silent about the arrest, reflecting the challenge acting President Delcy Rodríguez faces in appeasing elements of the ruling coalition that want her to resist attempts by the Trump administration to round up scores of Venezuelan insiders wanted by the U.S., sometimes for years, for serious crimes ranging from corruption to drug trafficking.
The Colombian-born Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sprawling crackdown on corruption inside state-run oil company PDVSA that was led by Rodríguez while she was serving as Maduro’s vice president. She took over as Venezuela’s acting president following the U.S. military’s ouster of Maduro in January.
Prosecutors allege that Pulido, together with Saab, created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies in exchange for more than $2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in the South American country.
Prior to these alleged offenses, Pulido had a prolific history of drug trafficking, including a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias of German Enrique Rubio, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.
Saab, who also hails from Colombia, was deported to the U.S. by Rodríguez in May. Last month, he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and other individuals and forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.
Washington
Federal judge orders Trump administration to halt work for a day on historic DC golf course
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes on Monday ordered a 24-hour halt to tree cutting at the East Potomac Golf Course, a historic D.C. golf course that has been part of President Donald Trump’s plans to remake the city.
Reyes issued the order following a tense three-hour hearing in which she blistered the government for having deceived her with its actions over the holiday weekend.
Reyes said the 24-hour temporary order could be extended to 14 days if necessary. It was limited to one day while the government tries to find a key Trump administration official to discuss why a massive tree-cutting at the park needed to occur over the holiday weekend, with little notification to plaintiffs in a lawsuit trying to halt renovation plans or the judge.
The hearing started with a blistering 15-minute statement from Reyes, who has declined repeated motions from the plaintiffs to halt work by the administration out of concern that its strategy has seemed to be move ahead on projects despite court actions.
“I am thoroughly unamused right now,” Reyes said. “I do not know how I could have made it any plainer that I did not want what was to happen, to happen.” The judge added: “I have given the government every single benefit of the doubt that it would not do precisely what it has done.”
The emergency hearing on a holiday expanded as the judge ordered the government to get various participants in the decision-making process into the hearing remotely.
