Quick overview

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Wall Street executives were called to an urgent meeting by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell due to concerns that Anthropic PBC’s latest artificial intelligence model could usher in a period of heightened cyber risk.

Bessent and Powell gathered the group at Treasury’s Washington headquarters on Tuesday to ensure banks are aware of potential future risks posed by Anthropic’s Mythos and similar models, and are taking precautions to defend their systems.

A meeting of the Financial Services Forum, an advocacy group composed of the largest lenders, had already brought many of the executives to the city.

Another indication that regulators view the potential for a new type of cyberattack as one of the greatest threats to the financial sector is the previously unreported meeting, which was called at short notice. Top regulators have designated all of the banks called to the meeting as systemically important, indicating that the global financial system prioritizes their stability

Powell’s attendance at the meeting indicated that the issue was one of systemic risk rather than the Trump administration’s prior conflicts with Anthropic. The Fed has extensive knowledge of banking operations thanks to its network of examiners. In response to a question regarding the Fed on Fox News on Friday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett stated, “We’re taking every step we can to make sure that everybody is safe from these potential risks, including Anthropic agreeing to hold back the public release of the model until our officials have figured everything out.”

Anthropic’s Mythos is a more potent system that, when instructed by a user, can find and exploit vulnerabilities in all major operating systems and web browsers. Anthropic’s own caution is echoed by regulators’ concern about the model’s potential in the hands of hackers. Anthropic only released it to a small number of significant technology and financial companies.