Researchers from Anthropic said they recently observed the “first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign” after detecting China-state hackers using the company’s Claude AI tool in a campaign aimed at dozens of targets. Outside researchers are much more measured in describing the significance of the discovery.

Outside researchers weren’t convinced the discovery was the watershed moment the Anthropic posts made it out to be. They questioned why these sorts of advances are often attributed to malicious hackers when white-hat hackers and developers of legitimate software keep reporting only incremental gains from their use of AI.

“I continue to refuse to believe that attackers are somehow able to get these models to jump through hoops that nobody else can,” Dan Tentler, executive founder of Phobos Group and a researcher with expertise in complex security breaches, told Ars. “Why do the models give these attackers what they want 90% of the time but the rest of us have to deal with ass-kissing, stonewalling, and acid trips?”