A group in Yemen attempted to use Anthropic’s Claude chatbot to build guided rockets and missiles, the U.S. firm has revealed, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels are on the offensive in the country.
In a report published Thursday (September 10, 2026) on how it had prevented illegal uses of Claude in several countries, Anthropic said it had “identified a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs”. Those were “a guided rocket that used a commodity phone-class flight computer with final-phase homing guidance; a multi-stage ballistic missile with a stated range goal above 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles); and a multi-variant missile… that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant”.
The cell used Claude to develop guidance, navigation and control software for the airborne weapons that would have otherwise required a team of engineers. “This field test appears to have failed: within hours, the actors returned to Claude to work out why it failed. Bullying Anthropic: On AI firm Anthropic versus U.S. government
“We do not have evidence the actors succeeded in fielding an operational device; but they did test-fire a guided rocket,” Anthropic said. Anthropic said it had banned the relevant accounts as soon as it had detected the illegal activity.
