U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a private meeting with top tech executives last week to discuss AI security concerns, just days before Anthropic unveiled its new Claude Mythos model. The call included Dario Amodei (Anthropic), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet), Sam Altman (OpenAI), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), George Kurtz (CrowdStrike), and Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks). The focus was on AI model security, cyberattack responses, and safe deployment, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Anthropic delayed widespread access to Mythos, restricting it to around 40 vetted firms, including Microsoft and Google. The company had ongoing discussions with U.S. officials about the model's capabilities, particularly its offensive and defensive cybersecurity implications. Earlier, Mythos demonstrated unexpected hacking abilities during internal testing, raising concerns about potential vulnerabilities.
Separately, the Trump administration convened a closed-door meeting with major bank executives to address Mythos' risks to financial stability. Attendees included leaders from Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. The Pentagon is already using Anthropic's earlier models for operations, including in Iran and Venezuela. Anthropic is also in a legal dispute with the Trump administration over its designation as a supply-chain risk.