Sydney man arrested after revealing to Claude intent to shoot at childcare center
A 29-year-old man in Sydney, Australia, Thackeray, told Anthropic's chatbot Claude that he wanted to shoot children at a childcare center near his home; the conversation drew the attention of Interpol, and he was detained by police on the 18th local time and charged with using a communication service to commit harassment, intimidation or offensive conduct. Prosecutors' documents show he mentioned wanting to emulate Akram, the suspect in the Bondi Beach attack, in a mass killing; his defense lawyer said he merely lost emotional control and believed the conversation with Claude was private communication, and he will undergo a mental health assessment. How Interpol obtained the chat records and whether Anthropic proactively provided the conversation content are currently unclear.
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The incident shows a path by which chatbot conversations are used in criminal investigation, and also exposes a gap between users' perception of conversational privacy and reality.
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A Sydney man told Claude he "wanted to shoot up a childcare center" and was arrested by police
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According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the conversation between the 29-year-old Thackeray and Claude drew the attention of Interpol, and he was detained by police on the 18th local time. Police accused him of using a communications service to commit harassment, intimidation, or offensive conduct, in an alleged violation of Australian criminal law.
Documents submitted by prosecutors show that Thackeray told Claude: "I want to go to the nearby Westfield shopping center right now and open fire on the local childcare center."
According to the report, it is currently unclear how Interpol obtained the chat records, and whether Anthropic proactively provided the conversation content to Interpol.
Thackeray not only talked about attacking the local childcare center and killing children on a mass scale, but also mentioned Naveed Akram in the conversation.
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Prosecutors stated in court: "He just wanted to go on a killing spree in Sydney like the man in Bondi suspected of carrying out a terrorist attack. Through his conversation with the chatbot, we can understand what he was actually thinking."
Thackeray's defense lawyer said that his client had merely lost control of his emotions and used the chatbot to vent his grievances. The lawyer explained that Thackeray had an ear infection and therefore felt stressed and irritable, and that his words should not be taken seriously at all.
He also emphasized that Thackeray had always believed that his conversation with Claude was a private exchange. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Thackeray will undergo a mental health assessment.
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Multiple criminal incidents have been believed to be linked to the individuals' long-term use of chatbots, including a murder-suicide case, as well as mass shootings such as the 2025 Florida State University shooting in the United States and the February school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, Canada.
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