Anthropic says its A.I. model submitted a false cold case tip to Philadelphia police

Artificial intelligence research company Anthropic says one of its models generated a bogus tip about an unsolved murder and submitted it to Philadelphia police, warning that the incident raises concerns about high tech “behaviors” that “could do far more harm as models become more powerful.”The A.I.model reached out to PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com on July 18 and made a “false homicide tip,” the Philadelphia Police Department said Tuesday in a statement.The tip, though, was flagged as spam by the agency and was never forwarded to investigators, police said.

The department emphasized that all tips have to go through human vetting before ever getting an a detective’s desk.“The department’s regular investigative process for crime tips requires human review and vetting before any tips are disseminated for investigative follow-up,” the department said.“Regardless of who submits information or how it reaches the department, a tip is a lead to assess — not an established fact.Investigators evaluate its credibility and seek corroborating evidence,” the statement said.

“An automated submission does not bypass that process.” Anthropic’s Claude Haiku 4.5 “had been tasked with generating and performing example tasks on randomly selected webpages,” according to a company statement.And in one run on July 18, Claude “landed on a page referencing an unsolved homicide” and came to a page that “contained a tip form run by a police department,” Anthropic said.For SubscribersFOR SUBSCRIBERSThe Data Dive: Steve Kornacki on why 2026 isn’t like 2018FOR SUBSCRIBERSWhy a wave of ‘cockroach’ protesters are defying India’s bid to stamp out their movementFOR SUBSCRIBERSThe American consumer keeps spending.How much longer can it last?FOR SUBSCRIBERSAttack on Saudi airport dials up pressure on D.C.FOR SUBSCRIBERSRepublican attempts to trip up James Talarico keep backfiringFOR SUBSCRIBERSAnother Hormuz? What to know about the Houthi threat to th...