Anthropic touts AI cybersecurity project with Big Tech partners

Anthropic on Tuesday announced an initiative with major technology companies, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and ​Apple, that lets partners preview an advanced model with ‌cybersecurity capabilities developed by the AI startup.

Under its “Project ​Glasswing”, select organisations will be allowed to ⁠use the startup’s unreleased and general-purpose AI model, “Claude Mythos Preview”, for defensive cybersecurity work, Anthropic said. Other partners include CrowdStrike, ‌Palo Alto Networks, Google and Nvidia.

The announcement follows a Fortune report last month that Anthropic ‌was testing Claude Mythos, which it ‌said ⁠posed security risks and also offered advanced capabilities, ⁠dragging shares of cybersecurity firms such as Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike sharply lower.

This year’s RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco was ​also dominated by ‌talkabout the rise of AI-powered cyberattacks and whether conventional security tools sufficed.

In a blog post on Tuesday, Anthropic said Mythos Preview had found “thousands” of ‌major vulnerabilities in operating systems, web browsers and ​other software.

The startup said launch partners will use Mythos Preview in their defensive security ⁠work, and Anthropic will share findings with industry.

Anthropic said it is also extending access to about 40 additional ‌organisations responsible for critical software infrastructure, and made a commitment of up to $100 million in usage credits and $4 million in donations to open-source security groups.

The AI startup added that its eventual goal is for “our users to safely deploy Mythos-class models at ‌scale.”

The startup said it has also been in ongoing discussions with ​the U.S. government about the model’s capabilities.

Last year, Anthropic said that hackers exploited vulnerabilities ⁠in its Claude AI to attack around 30 ⁠global organisations. Moreover, 67% of the 1,000 executives surveyed in an IBM and Palo Alto Networks ‌study said they had been targeted by AI attacks within the past year.