Anthropic's Mythos AI found flaws in classified US systems within hours, officials say
Mere hours, not weeks — that is how long it took an Anthropic AI model to find vulnerabilities across classified US government systems.
An AI model developed by Anthropic has identified vulnerabilities in highly sensitive US government computer systems during a testing exercise, a US official told the Associated Press.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Anthropic had teamed up with US intelligence agencies to conduct the tests using the company's Mythos model.
It identified certain vulnerabilities within hours, though that did not mean the model was able to exploit them within that time, the official said.
The testing was carried out through an Anthropic initiative called Project Glasswing, which brought together technology companies in a bid to secure critical software from the "severe" fallout that Mythos could pose to public safety, national security and the economy.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia had briefly mentioned the testing during a 11 June hearing before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
"This tool broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks but in hours," he said, attributing the information to the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and US Cyber Command, General Joshua Rudd.
Growing tensions
Despite the cooperation between Anthropic and US agencies, tensions between the California-based company and the Trump administration have been growing.
Anthropic has raised concerns over how the US military would use its AI, while the administration has moved to restrict the use of some of its models.
Earlier this month, the administration issued a directive requiring Anthropic to prevent foreign nationals from using its latest models, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
Anthropic released Fable widely this month — a limited version of the more advanced Mythos, to which the company has tightly restricted access due to cybersecurity concerns.
The directive came 10 days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a framework for the federal government to vet national security risks posed by the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release.
Participation by AI developers would be voluntary, the order said.
Anthropic said it disabled the models for all customers to comply with the directive, but added it did not believe the government's steps were warranted by the security concern it had flagged.
Industry pushback
More than 100 cybersecurity experts and leaders from companies including Adobe and Nvidia have written to the government urging it to lift the directive, warning the move could benefit US adversaries more than it harms them.
In their letter, the signatories said Anthropic's Mythos models are "quite good" at finding software flaws and weaponising exploits — but "not uniquely good at these tasks."
Many said they regularly use other foundation and open-source models for security audits and training, and warned it was dangerous to remove the best cyber defence capabilities "without a good reason" at a time when America's adversaries are rapidly advancing.
Cate Blanchett launches free tool to help people protect identity from AI
The acclaimed Australian actor presented her Human Consent Registry at the European Parliament. The tool allows people to protect their likeness from being used by AII.
Cate Blanchett is pursuing her crusade against unregulated usage of artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, the Australian actor and producer launched a free website allowing anyone to protect their identity from being used by AI systems.
The star presented the Human Consent Registry at an event hosted at the European Parliament in Brussels by Bulgarian MEP Eva Maydell, also attended by director Steven Soderbergh.
“Your identity is your IP in the age of AI, and every person deserves the right to decide how AI can or cannot use it,” said Blanchett, who co-founded RSL Media, a nonprofit working to build consent tools related to AI use.
The organisation’s new registry provides users with the possibility to allow - with or without terms - or prohibit AI use of their name, image, voice, likeness and movement among other personal attributes.
The tool is available to all individuals as well as third parties like agents and managers. It should eventually allow people to protect their works of arts, characters or brands, RSL media said in a statement.
European People’s Party lawmaker Eva Maydell described the Human Consent Registry as “a tool that makes rights transparent, scales trust, and keeps human creativity at the centre of technological progress.”
Cate Blanchett’s registry is just the latest step in the actor’s battle to address consent issue in AI usage.
In March 2025, the star joined Paul McCartney, Ben Stiller and more than 400 celebrities and artists who sent an open letter to Donald Trump, urging his administration to not roll back copyright protections.
The letter challenged arguments from tech giants like OpenAI and Google that US copyright law should allow AI companies to train their systems on copyrighted works without permission or compensation to rights holders.
Many artists have since spoken out against unlicenced AI use of their work and likeness. On Monday, singer SZA slammed musicians supporting “this degenerate shit,” after having discovered that more than 200 of her songs had been used to train AI.
Some even took drastic action, like actor Matthew McConaughey, who trademarked his image and voice, including his iconic “alright, alright, alright” catchphrase.
Cate Blanchett’s launch of RSL media in May received wide support from Hollywood powerhouses including Javier Bardem, Viola Davis, Tom Hanks, Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep.
“AI technologies are expanding rampantly, essentially unchecked and unregulated,” Blanchett said in a statement presenting her organisation.
“In order for humans to remain in front of these technologies, consent must be the first consideration.”
'No more hidden costs': UN chief demands AI firms 'come clean' over environmental footprint
A UN study found that data centres consumed more electricity than all but 10 countries in 2025.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has told AI firms to "come clean" about their environmental footprint, underlining how fossil fuels are driving climate and energy crises.
As Europe bakes under a second heatwave in as many months, Guterres delivered a speech in London that painted a stark picture of a planet that has just endured its 11 hottest years on record.
"Climate chaos is accelerating before our eyes," Guterres said, while the energy crisis, fuelled by war in the Middle East, is "exposing the folly of a world hooked on hydrocarbons".
"It is clear that our world is facing a Tale of Two Crises," Guterres said, referencing the 19th century British writer Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities'.
"On the surface, these crises may seem separate. But they share the same destructive origin: fossil fuels," he said at London Climate Action Week, an annual gathering of policymakers, company executives and NGOs.
Guterres proposes the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative
Guterres specifically called on artificial intelligence companies to release information about the carbon pollution they create, along with the water and land used to power their operations.
Guterres, whose term as Secretary-General ends on 31st December 2026, proposed the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative, arguing AI companies should measure and disclose the impact of their increasingly in-demand technology - impact which has been cited by opponents as reasons to curb the rapid growth of data centres.
Data centres are vast server warehouses powering AI and other digital services. AI firms have faced mounting pressure, both from governments and locally in areas with data centres that support AI, for increased transparency and more standardised reporting across the industry.
A UN study earlier this month found that the facilities consumed more electricity than all but 10 countries in 2025. By 2030, they could use more power than all but five countries, the study found.
The study also said the water, energy use and pollution associated with AI will double in just four years. Data centres needed to fuel AI accounted for about 1.5 per cent of the world’s electricity consumption in 2025, and will account for nearly 3 per cent of the world’s projected electricity use by 2030.
“Despite these obvious concerns, communities are often left in the dark about the environmental impact of the infrastructure rising around them,” Guterres said in his remarks.
Guterres said AI companies should also commit to powering their facilities with electricity produced with renewable technologies, such as wind and solar, by 2030.
“No more hidden costs,” Guterres said at Europe’s largest independent climate conference. “No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it. It is time to come clean.”
AI's electricity demands are growing
Many major tech companies have vowed to power their operations using cleaner sources, some by the end of the decade. Some plan to do so especially using solar and nuclear, including tech giants Amazon and Google
But the race to deploy AI has complicated those commitments and sent soaring greenhouse gas emissions, which come from the burning of fuels like oil, coal and gas, and heat the planet. Regulatory barriers have also hindered climate-friendly projects.
Currently, coal sources about 30 per cent of the electricity consumed by data centres globally, according to the International Energy Agency. Renewable energy – primarily wind, solar and hydro powers – supplies about 27 per cent, natural gas, 26 per cent, and nuclear, 15 per cent. Renewables are expected to meet just half of that demand over the next five years.
As AI booms, many, including Guterres, have touted its ability to accelerate climate solutions. It could improve energy efficiency, and reduce pollution and emissions.
The UN continues to sound urgent alarms
The UN chief has long urged the world to take serious climate action, and will once again convene leaders at the annual COP, this year in Turkey, to negotiate plans.
On Tuesday, addressing AI was just a number of steps he said needed to be taken to keep the world below the warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to pre-industrial times, a goal set during the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Last year was the first time that the three-year temperature average broke through that threshold.
“Every major emitter must accelerate action,” Guterres said. “And every country must over-deliver on its commitments.”
He called for cutting methane, a powerful greenhouse gas responsible for around one-third of global warming and significantly more potent than carbon dioxide, though comparatively it lingers for less time in the atmosphere. He also called for a reduction in dependence on coal, oil and gas.
Renewables progress seen around the globe but challenges remain
Guterres noted in his remarks positive developments in renewable energy, as scale drives down the costs of the technologies and adoption increases.
Clean power generation - largely driven by solar and wind - exceeded overall global electricity demand growth last year. The share of renewables also hit more than one-third of the world’s electricity mix for the first time in modern history in 2025, and coal power saw its share fall below one-third of global generation.
China continues to drive the world's clean energy transition, and in Europe, fossil generation is generally trending down.
But the US under President Donald Trump has embraced coal, oil and gas and slashed support for renewables and broader climate action – all amid the global energy crisis exacerbated by the US war in Iran, which Guterres called “the mother of all energy shocks.”
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