The White House and Anthropic are in active discussions about deploying the AI firm's powerful new model, Mythos Preview, within the federal government despite ongoing efforts to blacklist the company as a supply chain risk, sources familiar with the discussions tell Axios.
Why it matters: Anthropic is in a bitter feud with the Pentagon, but even U.S. officials who dislike the company concede that it's building tools that could aid U.S. national security — or harm it, if they fall into the wrong hands.
Driving the news: Anthropic is only rolling out Mythos to a select group of companies and organizations, rather than the general public, so they can assess its frightening cyber capabilities and harden their defenses.
- Some government agencies want to join that club, and the White House and Anthropic are discussing the terms under which that might be possible.
- In response to queries from agencies as to whether they are able to use Mythos, the Office of Management and Budget sent out an email, first reported by Bloomberg, saying they were looking into the matter.
- Two sources told Axios there are ongoing discussions with Anthropic and agencies may get access to Mythos in the coming weeks.
Friction point: That's despite the fact that Anthropic is in ongoing litigation with the Pentagon, which declared the company a "supply chain risk" and ordered companies that work with the military to remove its software from those workflows.
- Anthropic is currently barred from Pentagon contracts but can do business with the rest of the government while the case continues.
- "There's progress with the White House. There's not progress with [the Department of] War," a administration official said.
- A second administration official said the government "has a responsibility to evaluate every model to see where the frontier of tech is," but accused Anthropic of using "fear tactics" by issuing warnings of how Mythos could supercharge hacking.
- "They're using this Mythos cyber weapon to find friendly ears in the government," the official said. "They're succeeding."
What they're saying: "All the intel agencies use Anthropic. Every agency except War wants to. That's because Anthropic doesn't want to kill people and War's position is 'don't tell us what the f*** to do.' But if you're the Department of Energy, you don't give a f*** about that. You're worried about the Chinese attacking the energy grid. So you want Anthropic," the first administration official said.
- Anthropic's official position is that it will not allow its models to be used for mass surveillance or to develop fully autonomous weapons.
- The Pentagon says that's unduly restrictive because those definitions are nebulous and it needs assurances it can use AI systems for "all lawful purposes."
- Most of those concerns don't apply to non-military work.
- Anthropic and the Pentagon both declined to comment.
Zoom in: Civilian agencies like the Departments of Energy and Treasury are responsible for safeguarding critical sectors like the electric grid and financial system.
- Accessing Mythos would help them determine where companies and local governments may be vulnerable to cyberattacks and how to help them prepare.
Between the lines: Key officials in the Trump administration see Anthropic and its leaders as woke doomsters, and some relished slapping on the "supply chain risk" designation.
- But some of those same officials, and many others, also see Anthropic's tools as best-in-class when it comes to AI for national security purposes.
- One Defense official told Axios at the height of the Pentagon-Anthropic feud that the only reason the talks were ongoing is "these guys are that good."
Go deeper: How Anthropic's Pentagon deal could get revived
Sam Sabin contributed reporting.
