THE SHORT VERSION

Georgia's top election official: 'This isn't news' — the data was public, not a hack

Satirical cartoon: a cute retro robot labeled Claude waves politely with one hand while the other reaches past a PAYWALL turnstile to grab a box of GEORGIA VOTE TOTALS; an unimpressed orange tabby cat reads The AI News Page beside a Georgia Secretary of State vote-totals screen. — Machine Age Cartoon · Zimbo

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed Tuesday that Anthropic's AI agent pulled aggregate vote counts from Georgia's Data Hub, which is free and open to the public — nine days before the November 3 midterm elections.

"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," Raffensperger said.