Congress calls on Anthropic CEO to testify on Chinese Claude espionage campaign

The House Homeland Security Committee is calling on Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to provide testimony on a likely-Chinese espionage campaign that used Claude, the company’s AI tool, to automate portions of a wide-ranging cyber campaign targeting at least 30 organizations around the world.

The committee sent Amodei a letter Wednesday commending Anthropic for disclosing the campaign. But members also called the incident “a significant inflection point” and requested Amodei speak to the committee on Dec. 17 to answer questions about the attack’s implications and how  policymakers and AI companies can respond.

“This incident is consequential for U.S. homeland security because it demonstrates what a capable and well-resourced state-sponsored cyber actor, such as those linked to the PRC, can now accomplish using commercially available U.S. AI systems, even when providers maintain strong safeguards and respond rapidly to signs of misuse.” wrote House Homeland Chair Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y. and subcommittee leaders Reps. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Andy Ogles, R-Tenn.

The committee has also invited Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, and Eddy Zervigon, CEO of Quantum Xchange, to testify at the same hearing.

Committee leaders cited a need to closely examine “how advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and related technologies, and hyperscale cloud infrastructure are reshaping both defensive capabilities and the operational tradecraft available to state-sponsored cyber actors,” according to a copy of the letter sent to Zervigon.

As “adversaries may seek to pair AI-enabled tradecraft with emerging quantum capabilities to undermine today’s cryptographic protections, your insight into integrating quantum-resilient technologies into existing cybersecurity systems, managing cryptographic agility at scale, and preparing federal and commercial networks for post-quantum threats will be critical,” the members wrote.

 News of the upcoming hearing was first reported by Axios.

The hearing comes as policymakers and cybersecurity defenders continue to grapple with the fallout from Anthropic’s disclosure, with some cybersecurity experts asking for more technical details that would allow organizations to prepare for any heightened threats from AI hacking campaigns. Others have questioned the extent to which human expertise was relied upon to orchestrate, validate and guide Anthropic’s AI model during the attack.