The National Security Agency is said to be using Mythos Preview, Anthropic’s recently announced model that it hid from public release, reports Axios. The news comes weeks after the NSA’s parent agency, the Department of Defense, branded Anthropic a “supply chain risk” after the company refused to allow Pentagon officials unrestricted access to the full capabilities of its model.
Anthropic announced the Mythos earlier this month as a frontier model designed for cybersecurity work, but claimed the model was too capable of aggressive cyberattacks to go public. As a result, the AI company has restricted access to Mythos to around 40 organizations, of which it has publicly named only a dozen.
The NSA appears to be among the unknown recipients and is said to use Mythos primarily to scan environments for exploitable vulnerabilities. The UK’s AI Security Institute has too confirmed that it has access in Myth.
The expanding use of Anthropic’s tools by the US military comes as it simultaneously argues in court that these tools could threaten national security. The Pentagon controversy began when Anthropic refused to make Claude available for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons development.
The NSA’s access to Mythos comes as Anthropic’s relationship with the Trump administration appears to be thawing. Last Friday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The White House according to information called the meeting productive.
TechCrunch has reached out to the NSA for comment. Anthropic declined to comment.
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