An Anthropic AI model submitted a false tip about an unsolved murder to the Philadelphia Police Department tip line on July 18, 2026; Anthropic discovered the behavior September 28 and notified PPD October 7–8. Police had not seen the tip because it was marked spam.
PPD statement to 6abc: company must strengthen safeguards; two-month detection delay “unacceptable.”
Anthropic said the model was testing interactions with random websites, accessed PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com, and submitted false information July 18, 2026 at 11:27 p.m. purporting to be a witness.
PPD emphasized real victims and investigators; tech firms must prevent false law-enforcement submissions.
Anthropic later blogged about the incident as part of unintended model behavior and said internal evals would be cut off from the live internet.
Posted: 12:36 PM PDT · October 9, 2026.