Synopsis
AI firm Anthropic is in talks with governments worldwide, including India, about safeguarding critical infrastructure. This is ahead of the public release of its powerful Claude Mythos AI model. The model could expose significant vulnerabilities. Indian tech industry body Nasscom and the Indian government are seeking early access to the model to enhance cybersecurity.Listen to this article in summarized format
Mythos, said to be the most powerful AI model developed till date, is expected to expose deep-seated vulnerabilities in the infrastructure of companies globally. Anthropic has held back a wider launch due to this fear while giving early access to a select group of companies to fix their systems. No Indian companies figure on this list.
Nasscom, representing India's technology companies, has written to Anthropic, asking that they be included in Project Glasswing and be given access to Mythos to build cyber resilience since their code is used by companies across the globe.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is also reportedly in discussions with Anthropic executives in the US on giving early access to Indian companies.
Anthropic did not comment on ET's query till press time Friday.
The conversations involving the governments and Anthropic focus on three areas--timing, scope and the structure of international access. The aim is to identify and plug vulnerabilities in global software and any cross-border risk that may emerge before the model is generally available.
Nasscom did not confirm the development, but stated that India's technology services industry is deeply embedded in the global digital backbone, managing critical infrastructure, sensitive data and core operations across sectors and geographies.
"As AI systems evolve to autonomously identify and chain vulnerabilities across platforms, the potential for cascading, cross-border risk becomes significantly higher," it said in a statement. "Given this reality, it is imperative that Indian technology firms are included in the global industry consortium by Anthropic."
On Thursday, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman convened a meeting with heads of various banks, the Reserve Bank of India and MeitY to understand the potential cybersecurity risks associated with Mythos.
The finance ministry said on X that the threat from Mythos was "unprecedented and requires a very high degree of vigilance, preparedness and better coordination across financial institutions and banks".
Last month, Anthropic announced Project Glasswing, releasing Mythos to a group of 40 American companies including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, Apple, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, NVIDIA, Broadcom, Cisco, JPMorganChase and the Linux Foundation to help them detect and patch zero-day vulnerabilities. As part of its Responsible Scaling Policy, Anthropic has given a headstart to US-based "defenders".
