Georgia says AI agent accessed public election data, not voter lists

Georgia election officials confirmed Monday that an artificial intelligence agent accessed publicly available data off Georgia’s Election Data Hub. 

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office issued a news release Monday to confirm the data was accessed by an Anthropic AI bot.

“This isn’t news. Anthropic’s AI agent accessed information anyone can find publicly. Accessing public information is not a hack, and pretending otherwise is reckless and dangerous,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the release. “Georgia is consistently recognized as having some of the most secure elections in the country, with voting systems not connected to the internet designed to prevent fraud, paper-ballots, and risk-limiting audits. Twisting this into a security scare for clicks undermines confidence in our elections and is absolutely shameful.”

On Oct. 8, Anthropic contacted the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office to express concerns about the incident following which the office opened an investigation. The office shared finding with the White House on Oct. 9 and with Anthropic on Oct. 16.

By Oct. 26, Anthropic confirmed to the Secretary of State’s Office that the agent had not accessed Georgia’s voter list or bypassed a paywall. It only accessed the publicly available data on the Data Hub.

“Georgia has spent years strengthening election security while making election data more transparent and accessible to the public,” Raffensperger said in the release.