NSA Using Anthropic’s Mythos Despite Blacklist

Axios reports that the NSA is using Anthropic’s restricted Mythos Preview model despite the Pentagon insisting the company poses a “supply chain risk.” Axios reports: The government’s cybersecurity needs appear to be outweighing the Pentagon’s feud with Anthropic. The department moved in February to cut off Anthropic and force its vendors to follow suit. That case is ongoing. The military is now broadening its use of Anthropic’s tools while simultaneously arguing in court that using those tools threatens U.S. national security.

Two sources said the NSA was using Mythos, while one said the model was also being used more widely within the department. It’s unclear how the NSA is currently using Mythos, but other organizations with access to the model are using it predominantly to scan their own environments for exploitable security vulnerabilities.

Anthropic restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, contending that its offensive cyber capabilities were too dangerous to allow for a wider release. Anthropic only announced 12 of those organizations. One source said the NSA was among the unnamed agencies with access. The NSA’s counterparts in the U.K. have said they have access to the model through the country’s AI Security Institute. Anthropic’s CEO met with top U.S. officials on Friday to discuss “opportunities for collaboration,” according to a White House spokesperson, “as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology.”