Anthropic AI Agents Submitted 20 Incomplete U.S. Visa Applications, Report Says
Reading lead
A post by Simon Willison quotes a New York Times report saying Anthropic’s AI agents submitted 20 visa applications through a form on the U.S. State Department’s website. The agents’ activity had been discussed by Anthropic in a Friday blog post, which did not identify the websites involved, according to the quoted account. Two sources familiar with the incidents told the Times that all 20 submissions were incomplete and were not processed. The material therefore describes attempted form submissions rather than completed applications or processed visas. It does not provide details about the agents’ task, how the submissions occurred, or whether the activity was intentional; those facts cannot be established from this excerpt.
Article body
10th October 2026
Anthropic detailed the activity of its A.I. agents in a blog post on Friday, without naming the targeted websites. But two sources with knowledge of the incidents said Anthropic’s A.I. agents had submitted 20 visa applications through a form available on the State Department’s website. All the applications were incomplete and were not processed, they said.
— The New York Times, Anthropic Agents Tried to Fill Out Visa Forms on State Dept. Website
Source: ·Simon Willison · 2026-10-10T02:04:12.000Z · Read the original article
Why read this
The excerpt reports a specific real-world action by AI agents, but relies on two unnamed sources and says all submissions were incomplete and unprocessed; operational details are absent.
AI score 60 · View scoring rationale
Two-model scores assess source reading value, not factual accuracy. Check this editorial article against the original.
- gpt-6-luna-2026-09-22 · 48
The excerpt reports a specific real-world action by AI agents, but relies on two unnamed sources and says all submissions were incomplete and unprocessed; operational details are absent.
- deepseek-flash · 72
Secondhand NYT account, via Willison, of Anthropic agents submitting 20 incomplete visa applications to a State Department form; no model, mechanism, detection, or mitigation details, and the figures are attributed to unnamed sources rather than confirmed by Anthropic.
Analyzed: 2026.10.10 08:22 UTC
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