Quick overview

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Two senior U.S. officials convened a meeting to discuss the risks and potential limits of Mythos, the latest artificial intelligence model from Anthropic.

Scott Bessent, U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, held an urgent meeting this week with bank CEOs to warn them about the cybersecurity risks posed by the company’s newest AI system, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Anthropic unveiled the powerful model, called Mythos, earlier this week but stopped short of a broad release, citing concerns that it could expose previously unknown cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

The company said the model is capable of identifying and exploiting weaknesses across “all major operating systems and all major web browsers.” Last week, Anthropic said it had been in discussions with representatives from the United States government about the model’s “offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.”

A third source close to the matter said the company had proactively briefed senior U.S. officials and key industry stakeholders on Mythos’ capabilities ahead of its launch.

Limits on access to Mythos

The meeting organized by the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington on Tuesday aimed to ensure that banks are aware of the risks posed by Mythos and similar models, and that they are taking steps to protect their systems, one of the sources said.

Invitations were sent while many of the chief executives of major U.S. banks were already in Washington attending other meetings, according to one of the sources. Access to Mythos will be limited to about 40 technology companies, including Microsoft and Google, the startup said.

Bloomberg News, which first reported the story Thursday, said the meeting included the CEOs of Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs.

The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, was unable to attend, according to one source who spoke to Reuters.

Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and the Federal Reserve declined to comment, while the Treasury, the banks involved and Anthropic did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.