Finance ministers and top bankers raise serious concerns about Mythos AI model

Finance ministers, central bankers and financiers have expressed serious concerns about a powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) model that 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 every major operating system and browser. Experts have warned that the model may have an unprecedented ability to identify and exploit cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

François-Philippe Champagne, the Canadian finance minister, told the BBC that Mythos had been discussed extensively by his peers at the key International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington, D.C. this week. He said, "Certainly it is serious enough to warrant the attention of all the finance ministers… The difference with the Strait of Hormuz is that we know where it is and we know how large it is. The issue that we're facing with Anthropic is that it's an unknown, unknown. It requires a lot of attention so that we have safeguards, and we have processes in place to make sure that we ensure the resiliency of our financial system". CS Venkatakrishnan, the chief executive of Barclays, told the BBC: "it's serious enough that people have to worry. We have to understand it better, and we have to understand the vulnerabilities that are being exposed and fix them quickly". Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, also told the BBC the development had to be taken very seriously.

Top bankers are to be given access to the model in advance to test out their systems. The US Treasury confirmed it had raised the issue with its major banks, encouraging them to test out their systems before any public release of Mythos by Anthropic. Financial industry sources indicated that another prominent US AI company could soon release a similarly powerful model but without the same safeguards.