US Pentagon deploys Anthropic's Mythos to patch cyber gaps while planning to ditch firm

The Pentagon is deploying Anthropic's Mythos cybersecurity model to find and patch software vulnerabilities across the US government even as it races to complete a transition away from the AI ‌company, the Defense ⁠Department's ⁠top technology official said on Tuesday.

Announced on April 7, Mythos is being deployed as part of Anthropic's "Project Glasswing," a controlled initiative under which select organisations are permitted to use the unreleased Claude Mythos Preview model for defensive cybersecurity purposes.

Mythos, according to Anthropic, is capable of detecting decades-old vulnerabilities in web browsers, infrastructure ⁠and software.


Emil Michael, ‌the Defense Department's chief technology officer and under secretary for research and engineering, said the Pentagon continues ⁠to execute on its plan to remove Anthropic's products from its work in the coming months.

However, he said the Mythos issue "is a national security moment" where the government has hardened up networks, because that model has capabilities that are particular to finding cyber vulnerabilities and patching them.

Michael told attendees at a conference in Washington, DC, that ‌while those vulnerabilities have always existed, artificial intelligence tools like Mythos mean they can now be found and patched faster - but also ⁠exploited faster.

Michael also said Anthropic's advantage is temporary, adding that models from OpenAI, xAI and Google will come soon.

The DOD declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two sides failed to agree on how Anthropic's models could be used by the agency.

Anthropic sued the Trump administration in March to try to reverse the Pentagon's blacklisting.