Federal Reserve Officials Bessent and Powell Warn Bank Executives of Anthropic Model Risks
Detailed Analysis
Treasury Secretary Warns Bank CEOs of Cyber Risks from Anthropic's AI Model
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with bank CEOs this week to warn them of the cyber risks posed by Anthropic's latest artificial intelligence model, Mythos. The meeting, held at the Treasury Department in Washington on Tuesday, was attended by the CEOs of some of the largest U.S. banks, including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs.
According to White House national economic adviser Kevin Hassett, the meeting was a precautionary measure to ensure that banks are aware of the potential risks posed by Mythos. Hassett confirmed the meeting during an interview with Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum". Anthropic launched the powerful Mythos model this week but stopped short of a broad release, citing concerns that it could expose previously unknown cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
| Bank | CEO | | --------------------------- | ------------ | | Citigroup | | | Morgan Stanley | | | Bank of America | | | Wells Fargo | | | Goldman Sachs | | | JPMorgan (unable to attend) | Jamie Dimon |
The Treasury-hosted meeting aimed to ensure that banks are taking steps to defend their systems against the risks posed by Mythos and similar models. Anthropic has said that Mythos is capable of identifying and exploiting weaknesses across "every major operating system and every major web browser." The company has also stated that it is in ongoing discussions with U.S. government officials about the model's "offensive and defensive cyber capabilities."
In addition to the meeting, access to Mythos will be limited to about 40 technology companies, including Microsoft and Google. The company has also briefed senior U.S. government officials and key industry stakeholders on Mythos' capabilities ahead of its release.
Canada's Finance Ministry, the Bank of Canada, and bank executives met on Friday to discuss cybersecurity, with AI and Anthropic's new AI model being topics of discussion. The meeting is part of ongoing efforts to ensure public safety from potential risks posed by advanced technologies.
Investor Takeaway
Investors should be cautious of potential cybersecurity risks posed by advanced AI models.
