Agentic AI models may give cyber criminals new tools for cyber attacks. | Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP

With great power comes great responsibility.

Before artificial intelligence became readily accessible, cybersecurity risks were dependent on criminals’ direct labor. That is, criminals faced the same limitations that any worker faces – most significantly, that there are only a certain number of hours in a day. These limits inevitably limited cyber crime in the past.

But AI is removing these limitations for both legitimate and illegitimate activities. Agentic AI – autonomous AI systems that can complete tasks and meet objectives with minimal human supervision – may make cyber criminals more efficient. Agentic AI has greater capabilities and may be capable of “acting and making decisions in a way a human might.” This increased productivity is, of course, a good thing when the objectives benefit society. Unfortunately, it is easy to envision how criminals can exploit Agentic AI systems to engage in criminal activities without the limitations of human labor or even earlier AI models.

The potential for supercharged criminal activity made possible through Agentic AI is receiving scrutiny as this technology becomes more available. A blog post recently leaked from Anthropic, an AI company, discusses its new AI model, Claude Mythos, and provides insight into this emerging cyber threat. In what is described in the internal Anthropic documents as potentially the most powerful AI model ever created, the blog post makes clear that Anthropic has concerns that Mythos may create new cybersecurity risks. Specifically, Anthropic’s concerns are that Mythos could be used for crime by exploiting victims’ system vulnerabilities and outgunning current cybersecurity defenses.

Anthropic has already started to prepare government agencies and corporations for the potential impact of Mythos. Reports indicate that while preparing for the release of Mythos, Anthropic briefed U.S. government officials of the possibility that Mythos could be used for large-scale…

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