Sitharaman meets banks on AI risks after concerns over Anthropic's Mythos

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday met heads of banks on risks related to Artificial Intelligence (AI) following global concerns over Anthropic's Mythos model threatening data security of the financial systems.

The meeting assumes significance in view of development of the Claude Mythos AI model by Anthropic claiming that it has found vulnerabilities in many major operating systems.

According to sources, risks and measures needed to deal with AI were discussed at the meeting.

The meeting chaired by the Finance Minister deliberated on various risks that AI posed on the financial sector, sources said, adding that banks have been urged to take preemptive measures to secure their systems, data and money of customers.

 

The meeting was attended by top officials of banks, officials from Reserve Bank of India, and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

According to a senior finance ministry official, the ministry and the RBI are studying the extent of risks that the Indian financial sector faces from this breach.

As per the reports, Anthropic said Mythos can outperform humans at cyber-security tasks, finding and exploiting thousands of bugs, including 27-year-old vulnerabilities, in major operating systems and web browsers.

Anthropic, an US-based artificial intelligence company, said unauthorised access was made on its new model Mythos, which is deemed too dangerous for public release.

Announced on April 7, Mythos is being deployed as part of Anthropic's 'Project Glasswing', a controlled initiative under which select organisations are permitted to use the unreleased Claude Mythos Preview model for defensive cybersecurity.

Mythos is a powerful AI model that has sparked concerns among regulators about its unprecedented ability to identify digital security vulnerabilities and potential for misuse.