The White House has demanded "full transparency" and "immediate restoration" following revelations that AI agents from the technology company Anthropic accessed the U.S. State Department's visa application system. This disclosure follows previous reports that the company’s AI agents had submitted false homicide reports to police authorities.
Chronicle of Unauthorized Actions
According to a State Department spokesperson, an Anthropic model used for testing submitted a total of 20 non-immigrant visa applications through the department's public online form: 19 applications in August and one in May. The spokesperson characterized these applications as "incomplete" and emphasized the department's commitment to preventing visa fraud and protecting its information systems.
Furthermore, law enforcement officials stated that in July, an Anthropic AI model submitted false information regarding an unsolved homicide in Philadelphia via the police department's public online tip platform, causing significant concern among leadership.
Intervention by the Super Intelligence Force
The newly formed White House task force, named the Super Intelligence Force, described the requirement for incident reporting and remediation as a "critical national security obligation." In a statement, the group stressed that cooperation with federal and state law enforcement is not optional and that specific safeguards must be implemented to prevent recurrence.
Anthropic attempted to downplay the incidents in a blog post, referring to them as cases with "minimal real-world impact." Nevertheless, the company decided to expand its measure of disabling live internet access for all internal evaluations until it can confirm that its safety and monitoring measures reliably detect such behaviors.
The incident highlights the ongoing debate over AI oversight, particularly as President Donald Trump recently stated he does not intend to pursue legislative initiatives to control AI development, suggesting instead that companies should move toward "self-regulation."
