It wasn’t long ago that Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, sued the US government, challenging the Pentagon’s decision to officially label the company a “supply chain risk.” The messy legal dispute began when a deal between Anthropic and the Department of War (DOW) over the use of Anthropic’s AI systems fell apart.
The company reportedly refused to allow the DOW to use its AI systems because it demanded contractual “red lines” that would block the military from using its technology for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons. Although, in March, a judge blocked the DOW’s move to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” citing free speech violations.
But now, the Financial Times reports that Anthropic has placed about half a dozen “forward-deployed engineers” inside the US National Security Agency (NSA) to help deploy one of its most powerful models, Mythos, for offensive cyber operations.
It’s pretty ironic because the US government once seemed adamant about blacklisting Anthropic AI products for government agencies yet is now reportedly engaging with the company.
But this could make sense when you look at all the controversy and discussion surrounding Mythos since its preview earlier this year. The AI model has been dubbed by many as the most powerful AI model Anthropic has ever released, mostly because of its advanced ability to identify and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities autonomously at an unprecedented level.
Damilare Odedina
This caused panic across the tech world, leading Anthropic to limit access to the model to only a handful of companies and government organisations. It even prompted US officials to hold emergency discussions about the cyber preparedness of major banking institutions and large organisations in the event a model like this fell into the wrong hands.
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