Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed chair Jerome Powell reportedly convened Wall Street leaders on Tuesday in an emergency meeting on concerns about Anthropic’s latest AI model, flagging concerns about a greater cybersecurity risk.
Bessent and Powell assembled the group of high-powered execs at the Treasury’s headquarters to ensure banks were aware of the cyber risks presented by Anthropic’s new model, Mythos, and similar future models, reported Bloomberg and Financial Times. Sources who spoke to Bloomberg said those in attendance included Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser, Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf, and Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was also invited, but was unable to attend, the sources said.
The Federal Reserve declined to comment to Fortune. The Treasury didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.
The meeting comes just weeks after Fortune exclusively reported Anthropic was developing an unreleased model described by the company as “by far the most powerful AI model” it had ever developed, which the AI company inadvertently made public last month through its content management system. Later, the company acknowledged that model was Claude Mythos.
Anthropic on Tuesday released a report entitled “Assessing Claude Mythos Preview’s cybersecurity capabilities,” citing the powerful capabilities of its new model. One capability included Mythos Preview, which was able to find many 10- and 20-year-old vulnerabilities, including a 27-year-old vulnerability in OpenBSD, which is an operating system that has a reputation of being one of the most secure.
Anthropic briefed senior U.S. government officials and industry stakeholders on Mythos Preview’s capabilities ahead of its release, someone with knowledge on the matter told Fortune that. In a blog post, the company said it is willing to work with officials at all levels of government to ensure national security is a priority when rolling out new AI models, and that the U.S. maintains a lead in AI technologies.
Anthropic told Fortune that partnering with the government was the company’s plan from the start (the company is currently in a legal battle with the Pentagon after the Defense Department blacklisted it for placing restrictions on use of its AI technologies).
Anthropic’s new AI model could ‘reshape cybersecurity’, so it launched Project Glasswing
In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Amazon, Google, JPMorgan Chase, among other key tech companies, Anthropic launched Project Glasswing this week, an initiative aimed to secure critical software amid AI advancements. As part of the partnership, Anthropic said in a blog post it would share what they learn with the entire industry.
Aside from tech and financial services partners, the company has extended access to 40 additional organizations who build or deploy critical software infrastructure, and committed up to $100 million in Mythos Preview usage credits, the most basic AI usage unit. Anthropic noted the project was launched as a reaction to the capabilities the company has observed in its new frontier model Mythos that it believes could “reshape cybersecurity.”
“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,” the post warned. “The fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe.”
Anthropic said in the post Tuesday it would release the new model initially to “a limited group of industry partners to “enable defenders to begin securing the most important systems before models with similar capabilities become broadly available.”
Other business leaders have sounded the alarm on the cybersecurity risks powerful AI models pose. Dimon outlined in his annual letter to shareholders the cybersecurity risks major industries and corporations face from AI, saying cybersecurity “remains one of our biggest risks.” He added, “AI will almost surely make this risk worse”.
As part of Project Glasswing, JPMorgan aims to reduce cyber risks stemming from AI’s fast-evolving capabilities. “Promoting the cybersecurity and resiliency of the financial system is central to JPMorganChase’s mission, and we believe the industry is strongest when leading institutions work together on shared challenges,” Pat Opet, JPMorgan chief information security officer, said in a statement.
“Project Glasswing provides a unique, early stage opportunity to evaluate next-generation AI tools for defensive cybersecurity across critical infrastructure both on our own terms and alongside respected technology leaders,” he added.
