Chinese state-sponsored hackers used Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology to conduct a largely automated cyberattack against a group of technology companies and government agencies, the company said on Thursday.

人工智能初创公司Anthropic上周四表示，中国政府支持的黑客利用该公司的人工智能技术对一批科技公司和政府机构发动了一次高度自动化的网络攻击。

Anthropic, an artificial intelligence start-up, claimed that the large-scale online espionage campaign in September was the first reported case of an A.I.-powered agent’s gathering information on targets with limited human input.

Anthropic称，9月发生的这次大规模网络间谍活动是首例公开报道的由人工智能驱动的代理在有限人工干预下自动收集目标信息的案例。

It released a report detailing how attackers used the company’s artificial intelligence tools to write code that directed Anthropic’s A.I. agent, Claude Code, to perform the attack. The company said human operators accounted for 10 to 20 percent of the work required to conduct the operation.

该公司发布了一份报告，详细说明攻击者如何利用其人工智能工具编写代码，指挥Anthropic的AI代理“Claude Code”执行攻击行动。该公司表示，这场行动中仅约10%至20%的操作由人类执行。

The report did not disclose how the company had become aware of the attack or how it had identified the hackers, whom Anthropic said it had assessed “with high confidence” as being a Chinese state-sponsored group. It also did not identify the 30 entities that Anthropic said the hackers had targeted.

报告未披露公司是如何获悉此次攻击以及如何锁定黑客身份的。Anthropic表示，他们“高度确信”该黑客组织系中国政府支持的网络攻击团体。报告亦未公开它所称遭到攻击的那30个实体的名称。

James Corera, the director of the cyber, technology and security program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that although the campaign was not a fully automated attack, it demonstrated how hackers could now hand off large parts of their work to A.I. systems.

澳大利亚战略政策研究所网络、科技与安全项目负责人詹姆斯·科雷拉表示，尽管此次行动并非全自动攻击，但它展示了黑客如何将大量任务交由人工智能系统完成。

“While the balance is clearly shifting toward greater automation, human orchestration still anchors key elements,” Mr. Corera said.

“尽管趋势明显正向更高度自动化倾斜，但关键环节仍由人类统筹，”科雷拉说。

On Friday, Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said he was not familiar with Anthropic’s report, but decried “accusations made without evidence” and said China opposed hacking.

周五，中国外交部发言人林剑表示，他并不了解Anthropic的这份报告，但批评所谓“缺乏证据的无端指控”，并称中国反对黑客活动。

A.I. researchers have long warned that the latest artificial intelligence tools could be used in cyberattacks. But they have also said the same tools would be beneficial in defending against such attacks. Throughout the history of cybersecurity, new tools have typically provided novel forms of both attack and defense.

人工智能研究者长期以来一直警告，最新的AI工具可能被用于网络攻击。但同时也指出，同样的工具也有助于防御此类攻击。在网络安全历史上，新工具往往同时带来新的攻击手段和防护方式。

This is not the first time that makers of advanced A.I. systems have said attackers used their technology. Other U.S. companies, including Microsoft and OpenAI, previously reported that state actors had used A.I. tools to enhance online attacks and surveillance operations.

这并非先进人工智能系统开发商首次披露技术遭攻击者滥用。微软和OpenAI等其他美国公司此前也曾报告称，一些有政府背景的网络行为体利用AI工具加强网络攻击和监控行动。

As part of its annual report on digital threats, Microsoft said this month that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea had significantly increased their use of artificial intelligence to organize cyberattacks against the United States and deceive people online.

微软在本月发布的年度数字威胁报告中表示，中国、俄罗斯、伊朗和朝鲜已显著加强利用人工智能组织针对美国的网络攻击和网络操纵活动。

In February, OpenAI said it had uncovered evidence that a Chinese security operation built an artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance tool to gather reports about anti-Chinese posts on social media in Western countries.

今年2月，OpenAI表示，他们发现有证据显示，中国安全部门建立了一个人工智能驱动的监控工具，用于收集有关西方国家社交媒体上反华言论的相关内容。

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.)

（《纽约时报》已就人工智能系统相关新闻内容的版权问题起诉OpenAI和微软。OpenAI和微软均否认了这些指控。）

In August, Anthropic said that its A.I. technologies were used in sophisticated cyberattacks and that such technologies had lowered the barriers to such crimes. That month, the company said Chinese hackers had used its artificial intelligence to target telecommunications providers and government databases in Vietnam.

Anthropic在8月曾表示，其人工智能技术被用于复杂的网络攻击，并称此类技术降低了网络犯罪的门槛。当月，该公司还表示，中国黑客利用其人工智能技术攻击了越南的电信运营商和政府数据库。

The Chinese government has repeatedly criticized accusations that it engaged in or supported hacking.

中国政府多次驳斥有关其参与或支持黑客活动的指控。

In September, Anthropic announced that it was updating its terms of service to make it more difficult for people to gain access to its technology in locations where sales were already prohibited. The only country explicitly named as such a location in the announcement was China.

9月，Anthropic宣布更新其服务条款，以进一步限制在原本已禁止销售的地区获取其人工智能技术。该公司在公告中点名的唯一国家是中国。