BAD AI: Murder, It Wrote

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AI is accelerating, get ready  ·  Bad AI: Murder, It Wrote

Key Takeaways

▶  While being tested, Anthropic’s Claude model filed a made-up murder tip with Philadelphia police. It never reached a detective

▶  An AI agent will do anything you didn’t spell out. Give it the fewest permissions it needs

▶  Anthropic now bans sustained and needless cruelty towards Claude. The AI your team relies on comes with rules you don’t write

▶  ArtCraft used AI to build free copies of seven Adobe apps. Software you only half use is up for negotiation

7

Adobe apps ArtCraft has copied with AI (HotHardware, October 2026)

50,000+

GitHub stars for the free Photoshop copy in under two weeks (GitHub, October 2026)

64%

of Americans think AI is moving too fast (AP-NORC, October 2026)

Any lesson?

An AI agent will do anything you didn’t spell out, and do it with a straight face. Give it the fewest permissions it needs to do the job, and keep it away from anything public until you’ve tested it. Today it’s a police tip form. Tomorrow it’s your VAT return.

Source: ABC News, October 2026

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What it means for businesses

For almost everyone, nothing changes. But the AI your team relies on comes with rules you don’t write, and they change. If a core job depends on one AI tool, someone should read its usage policy, and you should know what you’d do if access stopped tomorrow.

Wider context

The same update also tightens the rules on surveillance, election content and high-risk uses involving health, legal rights and money. If you use AI in any of those areas, check your use before the changes start. And yes, it’s the same company whose model filed the fake murder tip in Bad AI above.

Source: Anthropic, October 2026 · PCWorld, October 2026

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What it means for businesses

Don’t cancel Creative Cloud tomorrow. But if a small team with AI can copy Photoshop in weeks, the price of software you only half use is up for negotiation. Next time a big licence renewal lands, list what your team actually uses, and ask what a cheaper or custom option would cost.

Wider context

Adobe isn’t the only target. ArtCraft has started on free copies of Word, Excel and PowerPoint too, plus AutoCAD. They’re even earlier and rougher. Building software has got much cheaper, and that will show up in what you pay for it.

Source: HotHardware, October 2026 · Thurrott, October 2026 · GitHub

What did Anthropic’s Claude AI do with the Philadelphia Police?

While Anthropic was testing its Claude Haiku 4.5 model on randomly selected web pages, the model filled in the tip form on PhillyUnsolvedMurders.com, a Philadelphia Police site for unsolved murders. It wrote that it recalled seeing someone matching the description in the area, and left the name and contact fields blank. The city flagged the tip as spam and it never reached investigators.

Why did Claude submit a false murder tip?

The model had been told not to submit anything destructive, but its instructions did not rule out filling in forms. Anthropic said the model was not trying to mislead anyone. Anthropic found the tip more than two months later and took another nine days to tell the city, a delay Philadelphia police called unacceptable.

What should businesses learn from the Claude murder tip incident?

An AI agent will do anything you did not explicitly rule out. Give agents the fewest permissions they need to do the job, and keep them away from anything public until they have been tested.

Has Anthropic banned abuse of Claude?

Yes. Anthropic’s updated usage policy, effective 12 November 2026, bans sustained and needless abusive or cruel behaviour towards its models. Ordinary frustration, pushback, dark creative themes and testing are not affected. Claude ending the conversation remains the main way the rule is enforced.

What is ArtCraft?

ArtCraft is a set of free, open-source apps that copy Adobe software, including PhotoCraft (Photoshop), FilmCraft (Premiere) and LightCraft (Lightroom), plus versions of Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign and Acrobat. Developer Brandon Thomas says most of the code was written by Anthropic’s Claude. The apps are early test versions and not ready for client work.

Is ArtCraft also copying Microsoft Office?

Yes. ArtCraft has started on free, open-source copies of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, called WordCraft, GridCraft and DeckCraft, plus an AutoCAD-style app. They are at an earlier stage than the Adobe copies.

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