Anthropic AI Agent Accessed Publicly Available Information, Georgia Elections Remain Secure

Atlanta - Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirms that an artificial intelligence agent developed by Anthropic accessed publicly available data off Georgia’s Data Hub, which is free to the public.

“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 Secretary Raffensperger. “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.”

Following initial outreach from Anthropic on October 8, the Secretary of State's Office immediately began investigating and quickly determined that the activity involved publicly accessible information, not unauthorized access to Georgia's voter registration system.

Timeline of Events:

• October 8: Anthropic contacted the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office to express concerns about its AI agent accessing the state’s publicly available data on Georgia’s Data Hub.
• October 8: The Secretary of State’s Office investigated and quickly concluded that the AI agent had simply accessed publicly available information through the state’s Data Hub.
• October 9: The White House contacted the Secretary of State’s Office about Anthropic’s AI agent. The Secretary of State’s Office shared the findings with the White House and made clear this was not the voter registration system though our public facing Data Hub.
• October 16: the Secretary of State’s Office contacted Anthropic to discuss the findings of its investigation.
• October 16: the Secretary of State’s Office contacted The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to discuss the findings of the on-going investigation, waiting on the final report.
• October 25: Axios published a story about the AI agent accessing “publicly available voter info.”
• October 26: Anthropic confirms to the Secretary of State's Office that its agent had not accessed Georgia's voter list or bypassed a paywall. It had only accessed information available through the state's public Data Hub.

"Georgia has spent years strengthening election security while making election data more transparent and accessible to the public," Raffensperger continued.

The Secretary of State's Office emphasized that Georgia's Data Hub is a public transparency resource and is separate from the state's voter registration system.

See the state’s data hub here: https://sos.ga.gov/page/election-data-hub-unofficial-turnout

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Georgia is recognized as a national leader in elections. It was the first state in the country to implement the trifecta of automatic voter registration, at least 17 days of early voting (which has been called the “gold standard”), and no-excuse absentee voting. Georgia continues to set records for voter turnout and election participation, seeing the largest increase in average turnout of any other state in the 2018 midterm election and record turnout in 2020, and 2022. 2022 achieved the largest single day of in-person early voting turnout in Georgia midterm history utilizing Georgia’s secure, paper ballot voting system. Most recently, Georgia ranked #2 for Election Integrity by the Heritage Foundation, a top ranking for Voter Accessibility by the Center for Election Innovation & Research and tied for number one in Election Administration by the Bipartisan Policy Center.