Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei was among three tech executives invited to testify before the House Homeland Security Committee next month on how state-sponsored Chinese hackers used the startup company’s artificial intelligence technology in a widespread cyber espionage campaign this year.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), who chairs the House committee, asked the Anthropic executive to testify on Dec. 17. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and Quantum Xchange CEO Eddy Zervigon were also invited to provide testimony at the hearing.
The congressional request follows a recent Anthropic report that disclosed the first documented case of a cyberattack that largely leveraged AI capabilities with limited human input to carry out cybercrimes. AI usage accounted for 80%-90% of the tactical operations conducted, leaving human operators with 10-20% of the remaining work.
The hacking operation targeted about 30 unnamed entities, some of which were successfully breached. Anthropic says the initial targets included tech companies, financial institutions, chemical manufacturing companies, and government agencies in multiple countries.
After detecting the operation in mid-September and conducting its own assessment, Anthropic concluded hackers affiliated with the People’s Republic of China exploited the company’s Claude Code to commit the cyberattack.
Claude is an “agentic” AI tool, meaning it can operate autonomously without as much human input required by generative AI systems.
Congress is concerned about what the reported incident means for national security.
“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,” Garbarino wrote in a Wednesday letter to Amodei.
STATE-SPONSORED CHINESE HACKERS USED AMERICAN AI TECHNOLOGY TO CARRY OUT CYBERCRIMES: ANTHROPIC
Each letter sent to the three executives were co-signed by Reps. Andy Ogles (R-TN) and Josh Brecheen (R-OK), both chairmen of relevant subcommittees under the larger committee led by Garbarino.
The invited witnesses must confirm their attendance for the hearing by Dec. 3.