Yemen's Huthi militia allegedly taps Anthropic AI to boost missile capabilities

Anthropic disclosed that a cell based in the north of Yemen, a region dominated by the Huthi militia, sought to leverage its AI models to create missile navigation and control software. The group aimed to develop multi-stage ballistic rockets and guided missiles that would embed ordinary mobile phones as onboard computers. To compensate for a lack of human programmers, the cell attempted to use Anthropic's Claude Code platform.

While the company reports that many access requests were denied, the cell employed several methods to bypass security safeguards and succeeded in some instances. The Huthis, backed by Iran, have recently threatened the Bab al-Mandab strait, a vital global trade route, and have previously attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea.