The Trump administration has spent nearly two months in a battle with AI company Anthropic. It has labeled the company a “radical leftist, woke company” that is full of “leftist jobs” and a threat to national security. But Anthropic’s new cybersecurity-focused model: Cloud Mythos Preview is reportedly melting some of the ice between the two.
Anthropic’s relationship with the Pentagon sharply soured in late February when the company refused to bend on two red lines: using its technology for domestic mass surveillance or using lethal fully autonomous weapons without any human in the loop. Anthropic’s technology has been heavily used by the DoD in the past and, it was the first company to have its models approved to operate on classified military networks. The standoff led to public outcry on social media, Anthropic was classified as a “supply chain risk”, the company filed a lawsuit against that designation, and a temporary injunction blocked its ban.
Anthropic recently attempted to get back into the good graces of the US government, at least in some capacity, with the Mythos preview. And judging by reports that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei attended a meeting at the White House on Friday, it could work. Anthropic confirmed the meeting on Friday. “Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei today met with senior administration officials and had a productive discussion on how Anthropic and the U.S. Government can work together on key shared priorities such as cybersecurity, America’s lead in the AI race, and AI security,” said Max Young, Anthropic spokesperson. “The meeting reflected Anthropic’s ongoing commitment to engage with the U.S. government on the development of responsible AI. We are grateful for their time and look forward to continuing these discussions.”
The Mythos Preview was announced with great fanfare regarding its capabilities – including the ability to find security issues in almost every major web browser and operating system. Anthropic says this model is its most powerful yet, and it’s currently only available for private access. It’s being marketed as a way to flag high-risk vulnerabilities in some of the most heavily used internet infrastructure we use, so that companies like Apple, Nvidia and JPMorgan Chase – who have already signed on to use it – can plug them before bad actors exploit them. The release of the Mythos preview has reportedly triggered emergency meetings between US bank leaders and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
It seems the Trump administration is also taking note. In a release about the Mythos Preview, Anthropic wrote that it was already in “ongoing discussions with U.S. government officials regarding the Cloud Mythos Preview and its offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.” Earlier this month, when The Verge Asked for details, Dianne Penn, head of product management at Anthropic, confirmed that the company has “briefed senior officials in the US government about Mythos and what it can do,” and that the company is still “committed to working closely with all different levels of government.” The company declined to say who exactly was briefed.
Anthropic also reportedly recently hired Ballard Partners, a Trump-linked lobbying firm, which has prompted further reports that a deal may be in the works between Anthropic and the White House.
on friday, axios Amodei was reported to have a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wills later that day. Describing the reasons for the meeting, a source familiar with the talks said, “It would be extremely irresponsible for the US government to deprive itself of the technological leap offered by the new model” and “it would be a gift to China.” The outlet also reported that “parts of the US intelligence community, as well as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA, part of Homeland Security)” are testing the Mythos preview, and that other departments and agencies are interested in it.
If Amodei’s meeting starts conversations about integrating Anthropic’s cloud into government use across agencies, it’s possible that DoD could also change its views on the cloud accordingly. It would be an adversarial end to a bitter battle over national security — but hardly the first time the administration has suddenly changed its stance.
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