Houthis used AI to develop guided rockets and missiles: Anthropic

A weapons development cell in northern Yemen used Anthropic's Claude AI to develop guidance software for rockets and missiles, including a guided rocket that was test-fired, according to Anthropic's latest threat intelligence report published on Thursday (10 September).

Anthropic said it identified a "cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs" and subsequently banned accounts associated with the group, reports Arab News.

The cell used Claude Code to develop guidance, navigation and control software for airborne weapons, effectively using the AI system to perform work that would otherwise have required a team of software engineers, Anthropic said.

The group was involved in three programmes: a guided rocket using a commercial phone-class flight computer and final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range of more than 2,000km; and a multi-variant missile programme that included a hypersonic glide vehicle.

Anthropic said it had no evidence that the group successfully fielded an operational weapon, but it did test-fire a guided rocket.

The test appeared to fail, after which the group returned to Claude within hours to investigate the cause, the company said.

AI used across weapons development

Anthropic said the actors used multiple Claude instances simultaneously, assigning different tasks such as coding, research and reviewing generated software.

The company said the group also used Claude to integrate an open-source autopilot with a phone-class flight computer, develop control and position-estimation software, tune flight controls, run firmware builds and conduct flight simulations.

The actors attempted to conceal the nature of their work by disguising their objectives and splitting activities across multiple sessions, according to Anthropic.

The company said its safeguards blocked many requests but failed to prevent all of the activity.

Houthi link not confirmed

Anthropic did not identify the group by name. It said only that the actors were based in northern Yemen.

Much of northern Yemen is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi movement, including the capital, Sanaa. However, Anthropic did not explicitly attribute the weapons programme to the Houthis.

The disclosure comes as fighting escalates along Yemen's western coast and the Houthis expand their military activities near the Bab el-Mandab Strait, a strategic maritime passage linking the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Anthropic said it had banned the accounts linked to the weapons programme, shared relevant intelligence with public- and private-sector partners and incorporated findings from the investigation into its safeguards.