AI system resorts to blackmail when its developers try to replace it

An artificial intelligence model has the ability to blackmail developers — and isn’t afraid to use it.

Anthropic’s new Claude Opus 4 model was prompted to act as an assistant at a fictional company and was given access to emails with key implications. First, these emails implied that the AI system was set to be taken offline and replaced. The second set of emails, however, is where the system believed it had gained leverage over the…