UAE-directed campaign used Claude to target Muslim Brotherhood and Sudan

Anthropic detected and disrupted a UAE-directed influence operation targeting the Muslim Brotherhood, the artificial intelligence (AI) company said in its September intelligence threat report.

The company said that a “single actor” used Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude, to conduct a “coordinated transatlantic and regional operation to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood globally.”

The campaign built a network of approximately 300 “inauthentic influencer social media accounts” to try and shape discourse around the Muslim Brotherhood, the war in Sudan – where the UAE backs the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – and the United Nations, which was trying to hold Abu Dhabi to account for its role in the war.

The actor used Claude to create a “front NGO that coped a real Swiss organisation’s identity and published state-authored human rights reports under it,” Anthropic said.

They also ghost wrote official testimonies with the “goal of having them delivered by two people at the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council”. 

“The content was engineered with specific restrictions ensuring that neither speech mentioned the UAE,” Anthropic said in its report.

The operation used Claude to research and profile 18 members of the European parliament and prominent journalists. “They compiled counter-accountability dossiers on UN Special Rapporteurs who had criticized the conduct of the UAE in Sudan,” the AI company said of the Emirati-directed actor.

Anthropic said that though the operation was built not to be traced, its investigation “linked it with high confidence to UAE government officials”. Senior Emirati officials were named as intended recipients of the work.