Anthropic touts AI cyber security project

Anthropic has announced an initiative with ⁠major technology ⁠companies, including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Apple, that lets partners preview an advanced model with cyber security 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 ‌cyber security 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 cyber security firms such as Palo Alto Networks and ⁠CrowdStrike sharply lower.

This year's RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco was also dominated by talk about 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 US$100 ‌million ($143 million) in usage ⁠credits and US$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 US 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 percent of the 1000 executives surveyed in an IBM and Palo Alto Networks study ‌said they ⁠had been targeted by ​AI attacks within the past year.