Finance ministers, central bankers, and financiers have expressed serious concerns about a powerful new AI model they fear could undermine the security of financial systems.
The development of the Claude Mythos model by Anthropic has led to crisis meetings after it found vulnerabilities in many major operating systems.
Experts say it potentially has an unprecedented ability to identify and exploit cyber-security weaknesses - though others caution further testing is needed to properly understand its capabilities.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told the BBC that Mythos had been discussed extensively at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington, D.C., this week. Certainly it is serious enough to warrant the attention of all the finance ministers, he said.
He elaborated, The difference is that the Strait of Hormuz - we know where it is and we know how large it is... the issue that we're facing with Anthropic is that it's the unknown, unknown. He continued, This is requiring a lot of attention so that we have safeguards and processes in place to ensure the resiliency of our financial systems.
What is Claude Mythos?
Mythos is one of Anthropic's latest models developed as part of its broader AI system called Claude, rivaling OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. It was revealed by Anthropic earlier this month when developers responsible for testing AI models and their performance in so-called misaligned tasks - which go against human values, goals, and behavior - said it was strikingly capable at computer security tasks. Citing concerns it could surface old software bugs or find ways to easily exploit system vulnerabilities, Anthropic has not released the model.
Instead, it has made Mythos available to tech giants like Amazon Web Services, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and Nvidia as part of an initiative called Project Glasswing - which it heralds as an effort to secure the world's most critical software. On Thursday, Anthropic released a newer version of an existing model, Claude Opus, allowing for Mythos' cyber capabilities to be tested in less powerful systems.
Concerns regarding Mythos may exceed previous AI models' chatter, but some cyber-security experts have questioned the justifications for these fears - especially given the model has not been tested by the broader industry to assess its actual capabilities. The UK's AI Security Institute has been given access to a preview version of it and published the only independent report into its cyber-security skills, noting it could exploit systems with a weak security posture. However, it mentioned that Mythos was not significantly better than its predecessor.
The CEO of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, emphasized the seriousness of the situation, urging for a deeper understanding of the vulnerabilities it might expose. We have to understand it better, and we have to understand the vulnerabilities that are being exposed and fix them quickly, he stated. Meanwhile, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey highlighted how this latest AI development could intensify the risks of cybercrime.
In light of the potential risks posed by Mythos, the US Treasury has proactively advised major banks to assess their systems before its public rollout. The situation remains dynamic as additional AI developers are poised to introduce similar powerful models without corresponding safeguards.
