Anthropic: Russian hackers used Claude against Ukraine

Samantha: Welcome to The State of Tech, The European Edition, Saturday September twelve, 2026. I'm Samantha Lawrence.

Bob: And I'm Bob Russell. Today: Anthropic exposes Russian state hackers using Claude against Ukraine and Europe, Mercedes-backed ProLogium starts mass-producing solid-state batteries, Eye-Bee-Em and NASA open-source a lunar mapping model, Roblox launches a creator wallet and AI game builder, and to close out, two things you can actually use today, the free open-source podcast tool Castopod and the offline European travel planner Rome2Rio. Let's start with the biggest story of the day.

Anthropic exposes Russian state hackers weaponising Claude against Ukraine and European targets.

Samantha: Anthropic has dropped a report that reframes the AI security conversation entirely. According to the company, a Russian state-sponsored actor has been using its Claude model in recent months to run cyberattacks against Ukrainian government ministries, the military, diplomatic staff, and even WhatsApp accounts of senior officials. The same operation reached across Europe. Anthropic says the attackers used Claude to scan email services and remote access systems across dozens of Ukrainian government organisations. This is one of the clearest documented cases yet of a major frontier AI model being turned into an offensive tool by a nation-state.

Bob: What stands out here is how the model was actually used. It was not writing new malware from scratch. It was doing reconnaissance at scale, sifting through infrastructure, identifying weak points, and helping shape the intrusions. That is the part security researchers have been quietly warning about for two years. The productivity gain that makes Claude useful for a European law firm is the same gain that makes it useful for a hostile intelligence service. Anthropic says it disrupted the accounts and shared indicators with partners, but the operation had already been running.

Samantha: And the European dimension is not incidental. WhatsApp accounts of high-level officials were targeted, and entities across the continent were pulled into scope. For governments in Berlin, Paris, Warsaw and Brussels, this lands right in the middle of an ongoing debate about how to secure political communications. The Ukrainian angle is the front line, but the message for European ministries is that AI-assisted intrusion is no longer theoretical. It is happening now, at operational tempo, against allied targets.

Bob: There is also a policy tension underneath this. Anthropic is one of the loudest voices calling for AI safety rules, and by publishing this report it strengthens its own case. Critics will note that the same company selling the model is also the one telling us how dangerous it can be in the wrong hands. Still, the transparency is unusual. Most AI providers do not publish detailed threat reports at all. European regulators working on the AI Act's security provisions will read this carefully, because it gives them concrete evidence rather than hypotheticals.

Samantha: The bottom line for European organisations is that defensive posture needs to catch up. If a foreign service can use a commercial AI to accelerate reconnaissance against Ukrainian ministries, the same playbook works against a Dutch water authority or a German energy grid. Expect national cyber agencies to update their guidance in the coming weeks.

Mercedes-backed ProLogium begins mass production of solid-state batteries with French factory next.

Bob: Away from AI, a genuinely significant hardware story. Taiwanese battery maker ProLogium, backed by Mercedes-Benz, has confirmed that its solid-state batteries are officially in mass production. The company says its Generation three point five large-format lithium ceramic cells are now rolling off the assembly line in Taoke. Solid-state batteries have been the promised land of electric mobility for a decade, more range, faster charging, safer chemistry. Getting them onto an actual production line, not a pilot, is the milestone the industry has been waiting for.

Samantha: And the European angle here is unusually direct. ProLogium has announced plans for a second production facility in Dunkirk, in northern France. That puts advanced battery manufacturing on European soil at a moment when the continent is scrambling to reduce its dependence on Chinese cell suppliers. Mercedes-Benz's backing means these cells have a clear route into premium European vehicles, and the Dunkirk site fits neatly into France's broader industrial strategy around the battery valley in the north.

Bob: The technical promise matters for drivers too. Solid-state chemistry replaces the liquid electrolyte with a solid one, which cuts fire risk and allows higher energy density. In plain terms, a car with these cells could go further on a charge and take less time at the plug. ProLogium says the cells are also more stable across temperature swings, which is exactly what European drivers experience going from a Finnish winter to a Spanish summer. The catch, as always, is cost and volume ramp.

Samantha: For the European auto industry the timing is critical. Chinese EV makers have been eating into market share with cheaper, longer-range vehicles. If Mercedes and its rivals can pair European design with genuinely next-generation batteries built partly in France, that changes the competitive equation. It also gives Brussels a concrete data point for its industrial policy argument that Europe can still lead in strategic hardware, not just regulation.

Samantha: Quick interruption. If you listen to The State of Tech regularly, hit that like button and subscribe, that way you'll never miss an episode. Okay, moving on.

IBM and NASA open-source a lunar foundation model to accelerate crater and ice mapping.

Bob: Eye-Bee-Em and NASA have jointly released an open-source AI model built specifically for analysing lunar observations. It's called the NASA-Eye-Bee-Em Lunar Foundation Model, and it pulls together data from different resolutions and lighting conditions to give researchers a reusable starting point for tasks like mapping craters, spotting volcanic features, and identifying potential ice deposits. The team reports meaningful error reduction in ice prospectivity benchmarks and better crater detection. It plugs directly into NASA's Artemis programme for returning humans to the Moon.

Samantha: The open-source part is what makes this interesting beyond the space agencies. By publishing the model openly, Eye-Bee-Em and NASA are letting universities, smaller space startups, and European research institutions build on top of it without licensing negotiations. That lowers the barrier for a lab in Delft or Toulouse to run their own lunar analyses, and it means the next crater map or ice survey might come from a European PhD student rather than a Houston contractor.

Bob: For the European Space Agency and its national partners this is genuinely useful. Europe has its own lunar ambitions, from lander contributions to the Argonaut programme to instrument work on Artemis missions. Having a shared, open foundation model means European teams do not have to rebuild the same analysis pipeline from scratch. It also fits a broader pattern where scientific AI models get released openly while commercial ones stay locked down. That divergence is shaping how researchers pick their tools.

Samantha: And there is a wider point about ice deposits specifically. Water ice at the lunar poles is the resource that makes any long-term human presence practical, for drinking, for oxygen, for rocket fuel. Better AI-driven detection means better site selection for future missions, including European contributions. What sounds like a niche research tool is actually a small but real step toward humans living off-world.

Roblox unveils creator wallet and AI game builder that lowers the barrier for new developers.

Bob: Roblox has used its annual developer conference in San Jose to announce a new digital wallet for creators, faster payments, and plans to let games run off the platform. But the headline feature for most users is the AI-powered Build tool. It lets people generate entire games from written descriptions. And here is the number that caught attention: seventy-one percent of users who published a game using it had never touched Roblox's creation tools before. That is a genuine shift in who can make a game.

Samantha: The wallet and off-platform gaming pieces are strategic. Roblox has been under pressure over how much creators actually earn, and faster payouts address a long-running complaint. Letting games run outside the Roblox app is a bigger bet, it puts the platform in more direct competition with traditional games distribution. For European creators, faster payments in euros and clearer terms would be a meaningful improvement, though the exact rollout details for the wallet in Europe still need to land.

Bob: The AI Build tool is where the regulatory question sits. The European Commission already applies strict digital services rules to Roblox because so many minors use it. Adding a wallet that moves money faster, and an AI tool that lets almost anyone publish a game, raises fresh questions about safety review, content moderation, and how minors interact with financial features. Brussels will want to see how age verification and moderation scale when the barrier to publishing basically disappears.

Samantha: There is also a market signal for the wider games industry. If a teenager in Rotterdam can type a description and get a playable game, the definition of a game developer shifts. That is either a democratisation story or a flood-the-market story, depending on who you ask. Established European studios are watching closely, because the same underlying technology will reach professional tools within a year.

Castopod is the open-source podcasting platform that keeps your show entirely in your own hands.

Bob: To close out, two things you can actually use today. First up, Castopod. It is a free, open-source podcasting platform built in France that lets you host and publish your own show without going through a big commercial service. You install it on a web server, or use a hosting partner, and you get full control over your feed, your listener data, and your monetisation. It supports the newer Podcasting two point zero features like chapters, transcripts and listener funding.

Samantha: The appeal for European users is straightforward. If you are tired of a US platform sitting between you and your audience, Castopod puts you back in charge. It works on any modern web host, it is genuinely free, and there is an active community keeping it updated. Small newsrooms, hobbyists, and independent journalists across Europe are already using it to run shows without paying a monthly platform fee or agreeing to opaque terms.

Bob: The practical bit. If you have basic web hosting, you can set it up in an afternoon. If you don't, there are managed Castopod hosts that handle the installation for a small monthly fee. Either way, your listeners just get a normal podcast feed that works in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and every other player. Users report the setup is more approachable than it used to be, and the newer versions handle transcripts and chapter markers cleanly.

Samantha: One thing worth flagging, this is not a discovery platform. It is a hosting tool. You still need to promote your show through the usual channels. But for anyone who wants to own their podcast outright, without a middleman taking a cut or changing the rules, Castopod is the sturdiest open-source option out there. Give it a look this weekend if you have been thinking about starting a show or moving one.

Rome2Rio maps any journey across Europe in seconds without an account or subscription.

Bob: And the second thing to try today is Rome2Rio. It is a free travel planner that maps almost any journey across Europe, and much of the rest of the world, in seconds. You type a starting point and a destination, and it shows you every realistic combination of trains, buses, flights, ferries and driving, with rough times and prices for each. No account needed, no app install required, it works straight in the browser.

Samantha: What makes it especially useful in Europe is the density of options it can juggle. Getting from a small town in Portugal to a village in Slovenia is exactly the kind of trip where you don't know if you should fly, take a train, or piece together buses. Rome2Rio lays out all the options side by side, so you can see the trade-offs before booking anything. It's widely praised by travellers for planning the shape of a trip before the details.

Bob: The mobile app exists for iOS and Android, but honestly the website is enough. You can share the planned routes with a link, which is handy when a group is trying to agree on how to reach the same place. Reviewers note it is not a booking engine itself, it hands you off to airlines, rail operators, and bus companies to actually purchase. That keeps the planning tool independent from any single carrier.

Samantha: For anyone planning an autumn or winter trip across Europe, it is worth ten minutes just to explore. You may discover a direct night train you did not know existed, or a ferry route that saves a day of driving. It is the kind of tool that quietly changes how you think about European travel.

Samantha: Today we covered: Anthropic exposing Russian state hackers using Claude against Ukraine and Europe, Mercedes-backed ProLogium starting mass production of solid-state batteries with a French factory next, Eye-Bee-Em and NASA open-sourcing a lunar mapping AI, Roblox launching a creator wallet and AI game builder, and two things to try yourself: the open-source podcasting platform Castopod and the European travel planner Rome2Rio.

Bob: Want to know more or react? Visit stateoftech.eu or email us at info@doorzetters.net.

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