Anthropic's powerful new frontier AI model, Mythos, poses a serious threat to the global banking system, and it is likely to be followed by even more advanced versions in rapid succession, Barclays Chief Executive C.S. Venkatakrishnan warned on Friday.
The model's exceptional ability to code at a high level gives it an unprecedented capacity to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities and develop sophisticated ways to exploit them, raising fears it could be used to destabilise banks.
The emergence of Mythos has triggered an urgent scramble among regulators and supervisors, with selected organisations now urgently reviewing the model to assess the real cybersecurity risks it presents. Regulators view Mythos as a significant challenge to the banking sector, particularly its legacy technology systems.
"On Mythos, look, it's a serious issue," Venkatakrishnan told a meeting of the G30 consultancy group on the sidelines of the IMF’s spring meeting.
"But here's the thing: there will be a Mythos 2 and a Mythos 3, and they'll come up with probably distressing frequency," he added.
Such rapid technological leaps are accelerating an arms race that will force banks to innovate at pace. Venkatakrishnan noted that the challenge may be especially acute for older and larger institutions that still rely on legacy systems.
"We have to understand its capabilities and we have to understand how to safeguard against it," he said.
Reuters
