The Centre is \u201clooking for mechanisms\u201d and working out \u201clogistics\u201d on Indian companies gaining access to Anthropic\u2019s Mythos AI model in bilateral talks being held with the US administration, a senior official involved in the discussions told ET. India wants to make sure access is \u201cequitable\u201d and the country\u2019s critical infrastructure is not compromised.<\/p>\n
While speaking at the 26th ET Awards for Corporate Excellence on Saturday,<\/a> finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said the ministry of electronics was fully seized of the challenge. \u201cThey are engaging with the US administration, Anthropic and with the vendors who have been given a chance to test (Mythos),\u201d she had said. \u201cThe cyber challenge we have because of the Mythos, is going to be a big one.<\/a>\u201d Sitharaman held a meeting with banks and key cyber agencies along with IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw last week on the matter.<\/p>\n Officials underlined that the government doesn\u2019t want to favour any particular company by enabling access to some while leaving out others.<\/p>\n Conversations with the US authorities are in addition to talks with Anthropic\u2019s officials at the company\u2019s US headquarters.<\/p>\n Anthropic didn\u2019t respond to ET\u2019s queries till the time of going to press. The Centre has also asked the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team<\/a> (CERT-In), the National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) and the financial sector to ensure they move fast to protect critical infrastructure such as power grids, telecom networks and banking channels among others that could be vulnerable. The government is also considering a policy response to more AI companies launching such models in the future.<\/p>\n \u201cCurrently, Anthropic has held off the wider release, but tomorrow more companies can launch such models,\u201d said the official cited above. \u201cThey may release them without advance notice. The government needs to build its capacity as of yesterday.\u201d China has reportedly already developed its own version of Mythos.<\/p>\n Claude Mythos is the newest AI model from Anthropic that\u2019s said to be so advanced that it can identify and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities rapidly. Anthropic\u2019s Project Glasswing<\/a> gave early access to 40 companies, mostly from the US, to help them use Mythos to catch and patch flaws before it\u2019s released to the public. No Indian company was included in the list.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government of India should formally and urgently seek participation in Project Glasswing that achieves an equivalent outcome for India’s critical infrastructure,\u201d said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of the policy think tank The Dialogue. \u201cIndia’s digital public infrastructure serves a population potentially larger than the user base of most Glasswing partners’ consumer platforms, and its exclusion from the programme is a gap in global critical infrastructure security, not merely an Indian national concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Companies that tested Mythos said it could find tens of thousands of vulnerabilities, compared with roughly 500 found by Anthropic\u2019s previous model, Opus 4.6, a 20-fold jump in one generation.<\/p>\n Also Read: CERT-In flags ‘high-severity risks’ from AI-driven cyber threats amid Mythos concerns<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe government of India should formally and urgently seek participation in Project Glasswing that achieves an equivalent outcome for India’s critical infrastructure,\u201d said Kazim Rizvi, founding director of the policy think tank The Dialogue.<\/p>\n \u201cIndia’s digital public infrastructure serves a population potentially larger than the user base of most Glasswing partners’ consumer platforms, and its exclusion from the programme is a gap in global critical infrastructure security, not merely an Indian national concern.\u201d<\/p>\n Also Read: Anthropic Mythos: Firms with access to model say speed of response, not uncovering flaws, is key<\/a><\/p>\n
Also Read: ET Awards: Sitharaman flags AI threat and global risks, says reforms on the way to support India Inc growth<\/a><\/p>\n