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Vance, Bessent questioned tech giants on AI security before Anthropic's Mythos release

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Why This Matters

The U.S. government and tech giants are actively engaging in discussions about AI security, especially around large language models like Anthropic's Mythos, to mitigate risks of cyber attacks and misuse. These conversations highlight the increasing importance of regulatory oversight and collaboration between industry and government to ensure safe AI deployment. The focus on pre-release briefings and security measures underscores the industry's recognition of AI's potential vulnerabilities and the need for proactive safeguards.

Key Takeaways

An Anthropic official declined to comment on the meeting, but told CNBC on Friday that the company has been in touch with senior officials about cybersecurity in recent weeks and has made itself available to support "the government's own testing and evaluation of the technology."

The tech CEOs met to discuss the security posture of large language models and safe deployment, according to the person. Officials also discussed how to respond if models scale in favor of attackers, they added.

The meeting occurred over the phone, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the meeting was private.

Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week questioned leading tech CEOs about the security of artificial intelligence models and how to respond to cyber attacks before Anthropic released its new Mythos model, CNBC has learned.

"Prior to any external release, Anthropic briefed senior officials across the U.S. government on Mythos Preview's full capabilities, including both its offensive and defensive cyber applications," the official said. "Bringing government into the loop early — on what the model can do, where the risks are, and how we're managing them — was a priority from the start."

OpenAI and CrowdStrike declined to comment on the meeting. The White House and the other companies have not responded to CNBC's requests for comment.

Anthropic rolled out its Mythos AI model to a limited group of companies on Tuesday as it assesses ways to prevent hackers from using it. Apple , Google, Microsoft, Nvidia , Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike were among the initial launch partners.

Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell this week called a surprise meeting with the heads of the biggest U.S. banks to address the potential threat of Mythos, signaling further concern from the Trump administration about advanced cyber tools.

It was also a sign that Anthropic is still part of the conversation about AI in the White House, as President Donald Trump seeks to strip the startup's Claude platform from federal agencies.

Anthropic's legal challenge to the Department of Defense supply chain risk designation is still playing out in court after two opposing rulings on opposite sides of the country.

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