Anthropic: Houthis used Claude AI to make self- correcting missiles

DAILYMAIL.COM • 6h ago

By MARK NICOL, DEFENCE EDITOR 19:06 12 Oct 2026, updated 08:46 13 Oct 2026

Houthi rebels responsible for deadly missile strikes in Saudi Arabia have been using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence to make warheads, the US firm has admitted.

The makers of Claude revealed in a report last month that the Yemen-based fighters launched three weapons programmes using their AI products.

Over the weekend, the Houthis launched their most devastating attacks on Saudi Arabia to date.

In two attacks on the King Khalid International Airport, 14 were killed and hundreds injured, forcing the closure of the airport.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has vowed a ‘serious’ response to the deadly attacks on the Kingdom’s airports in recent days and oil and gas facilities.

The multi-billion pound company’s report provides the clearest evidence yet of how AI could redraw the geopolitical landscape in the Gulf and elsewhere.

In a section entitled ‘Disrupting a Yemen-based guided weapons engineering cell’ the authors described how they identified a terrorist cell running three programmes, all using Claude.

Claude is capable of a wide variety of conversational and text-based teaching programmes on almost all areas of human activity.

In this case the AI engine condensed the knowledge of the world’s leading rocket scientists, which was then accessed by terrorists, the Anthropic report said.

It added: ‘Threat actors based in northern Yemen [were] running three weapons development programmes: 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 of more than 1,500 miles and a multi-variant missile, referred to as the R2000, that included a hypersonic glide vehicle variant.’

The threat actors, understood to be Houthis, used Claude Code in place of human software engineers to develop the guidance, navigation and control software that steers and stabilises a flying vehicle.

Claude Code provided position estimation software, tuned the control settings, ran a firmware build pipeline and when warheads missed their targets adapted itself to improve their accuracy.

Even when Anthropic realised their software was being used in this manner the threat actors were able to take what they had been taught and make adaptations.

The Anthropic report continued: ‘Our safeguards blocked many of their requests, but not all of them. They used a variety of tactics to evade our safeguards and split their work across multiple sessions.

‘We do not have evidence the actors succeeded in fielding an operational device; but they did test-fire a guided rocket. This field test appears to have failed. Within hours, the actors returned to Claude to work out why it failed.

‘We have evidence that the actors had already built an offline simulation toolkit that does not rely on Claude or other engineering computing environments such as MATLAB.’

Saudi security officials have been shocked by the range and accuracy of the Houthis’ warheads.

Labour’s new ‘£9bn’ stealth tax raid: Hated freeze on thresholds set to hammer Brits even harder as…

Katie Price tells court she confronted ex Kieran Hayler over claims he raped girl, 13, and asked if…

Witnesses screamed at man to ‘play dead’ before he was mauled to death by tiger at Yorkshire zoo -…

Debts paid off, bank accounts closed, then a poignant visit to the lake where their mother drowned:…

Burnham is in retreat over Russia Brexit ‘lies’: Boris and Farage blast PM’s referendum claim

Nato chief warns his forces will destroy ‘anything and everything’ if Putin is ‘foolish enough’ to…

Family discover daughter, 15, is alive in her coffin during wake

Student carried out a ‘cold-blooded execution’ of university housemate by ‘ambushing him and…

Harry and Meghan’s new life as ‘private citizens’: Sussexes will make first joint public appearance…

Burnham says Brexit ‘not good enough’ as he vows to cosy up to EU at next month’s summit – as…

NADINE DORRIES: Meghan has started a media war – here’s how Kate can win it

‘When everything was falling apart, Carole was the one’: ROBERT JOBSON reveals how Prince William…

British woman is left stranded in Greek hospital with £10,000 medical bill after breaking her back…

The publicity-shy wife standing by Russell Brand’s side: Laura Gallacher steps into the spotlight as…

Mother-of-six, 46, lost her legs, hands and lips after hysterectomy went badly wrong, $68m lawsuit…

Passenger jet makes emergency landing after power bank bursts into flames

Anthropic: Houthis used Claude AI to make self- correcting missilesComments are subject to our House rules and TermsNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}}

No one seems to have shared their thoughts on this topic yetLeave a comment so your voice will be heard first.

{{upVotes}}{{downVotes}}{{#replies.comments}}{{^isLast}}{{initials}}{{userAlias}}, United Kingdom, {{formattedDateAndTime}}{{message}}

{{upVotes}}{{downVotes}}{{/isLast}}{{#isLast}}{{initials}}{{userAlias}}, United Kingdom, {{formattedDateAndTime}}{{message}}

{{upVotes}}{{downVotes}}{{/isLast}}{{/replies.comments}}{{/replies.totalCount}}{{^replies.totalCount}}{{initials}}{{userAlias}}, United Kingdom, {{formattedDateAndTime}}{{message}}

{{upVotes}}{{downVotes}}{{/replies.totalCount}}{{/isComment}}The opinions and views expressed in the comments section are solely those of the individual users and do not represent or reflect the opinions, views, or positions of MailOnline. MailOnline does not endorse, support, or verify the accuracy of any user-generated content.Terms|Privacy|FeedbackOldest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}}