What States Need to Know About Mythos

In April, AI company Anthropic announced it had created an AI tool called “Mythos” that was extremely adept at finding vulnerabilities in software.
In the wrong hands, such powerful AI models might lead to a flood of sophisticated cyber attacks. Experts expect to see other, similarly advanced AI models emerge in coming months.
States can act now to shore up their cyber defenses, however. That includes tackling cybersecurity basics like limiting Internet exposure and keeping close tabs on their vendors’ cybersecurity practices.

In April, AI company Anthropic announced it had created Claude Mythos Preview, an AI model so good at finding and exploiting software vulnerabilities that the company would, for the time being, only be allowing a select group of users to access it. The initial group included organizations behind “the world’s most critical software,” like Amazon Web Services and the Linux Foundation, so they could use Mythos to discover and patch up flaws in their software before hackers could discover them.

The creation of Mythos set off a firestorm of speculation about how AI could fundamentally change the cybersecurity landscape.

“Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely,” Anthropic said of Mythos at the time. “The fallout — for economies, public safety, and national security — could be severe.”

In June, Anthropic announced it was releasing to the public a similarly powerful AI model called Fable 5, that would have built-in safeguards to prevent it being used for malicious cybersecurity purposes. Just days later, the White House said it feared a national security threat and ordered the company to block any foreign nationals in or outside the U.S. — including Anthropic employees — from accessing Mythos-level AI models. To comply, Anthropic…

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