Synopsis
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has warned of a new cyber threat from Anthropic's AI model Mythos, comparing its potential impact to that of war. Authorities are increasing engagement with Anthropic and the US administration to understand and counter these evolving digital risks, while also strengthening domestic capabilities and financial sector preparedness.Listen to this article in summarized format
Speaking at the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence on Saturday, Sitharaman said the scale and nature of the development had caught authorities off guard.
“No one would have imagined a couple of weeks ago that there is a new threat which is as big as a threat of war, that is going to hit us in terms of the entire digital network,” she said.
The minister added that while digitisation has been a “fantastic force multiplier” for India, it has also exposed the ecosystem to rapidly evolving cyber risks.
“We will just have to keep exceptionally vigilant,” she emphasised.
The government is now stepping up engagement with AI firm Anthropic and the US administration to better understand the issue, the minister said, adding that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is “fully seized of the challenge” and is actively assessing the situation.
As part of these efforts, authorities have begun reaching out to companies which have had access to the Mythos model seeking greater clarity on its capabilities and potential risks.
The statement comes as industry body Nasscom has also written to Anthropic, requesting that Indian companies be granted access.
Officials are working with banks and financial institutions to strengthen preparedness, including exploring how artificial intelligence can be deployed to respond to such challenges, she stated.
Sitharaman noted that alongside international cooperation, India would need to build its own capabilities to address emerging threats. “We will have to work at our own level to come up with tools to face this challenge,” she said.
The government had called a meeting of top bankers with ministers, including Sitharaman and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnav, in New Delhi on Thursday, where it announced the formation of a dedicated panel under SBI chairman C S Setty for this purpose.
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.
