Skip to content
Tech News
← Back to articles

NSA spies are reportedly using Anthropic’s Mythos, despite Pentagon feud

read original get Anthropic Mythos AI Tool → more articles
Why This Matters

The NSA's use of Anthropic’s Mythos model highlights the increasing reliance of U.S. intelligence agencies on advanced AI for cybersecurity, despite ongoing tensions with the Pentagon over AI transparency and access. This development underscores the strategic importance and potential risks of deploying powerful AI models in national security contexts, raising questions about oversight and ethical use. For consumers and the tech industry, it signals a growing integration of cutting-edge AI into defense and security operations, which could influence future AI regulation and innovation.

Key Takeaways

In Brief

The National Security Agency is said to be using Mythos Preview, Anthropic’s recently announced model that it withheld from public release, Axios reports. The news comes weeks after the NSA’s parent agency, the Department of Defense, labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” after the company refused to allow Pentagon officials unrestricted access to its model’s full capabilities.

Anthropic announced Mythos earlier this month as a frontier model designed for cybersecurity tasks, but claimed the model was too capable of offensive cyberattacks to be released publicly. As a result, the AI firm limited access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, of which it has publicly named only a dozen.

The NSA appears to be among the undisclosed recipients, and is said to be using Mythos primarily for scanning environments for exploitable vulnerabilities. The UK’s AI Security Institute has also confirmed it has access to Mythos.

The U.S. military’s expanding use of Anthropic’s tools comes as it simultaneously argues in court that those tools can threaten national security. The Pentagon’s dispute originated when Anthropic refused to make Claude available for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons development.

The NSA’s access to Mythos comes as Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration appears to be thawing. Last Friday, Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent.

The White House reportedly called the meeting productive.

TechCrunch has reached out to the NSA for comment. Anthropic declined to comment.