Bessent, Fed's Powell met with bank CEOs over potent new Anthropic AI

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with top bank CEOs in a closed-door meeting this week to discuss the cybersecurity risks posed by Anthropic's latest AI model, Mythos, sources told CBS News. 

JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon was invited but was unable to attend, according to the sources. The meeting was earlier reported by Bloomberg News, which said Powell and Bessent summoned the financial executives to the Treasury Department's Washington, D.C., headquarters to discuss the potential risks from Mythos and other AI models. 

Anthropic, the developer of generative AI chatbot Claude, on Tuesday said it was forming a project with several major tech companies, including Amazon, Apple and Nvidia, to use Mythos to strengthen cybersecurity defenses. 

Anthropic added that it will not widely release Mythos because of its advanced capabilities, which have uncovered vulnerabilities in major operating systems and web browsers.

"Given the rate of AI progress, it will not be long before such capabilities proliferate, potentially beyond actors who are committed to deploying them safely," Anthropic said in a post about the new project. "The fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe."

The effort, called Project Glasswing, "is an urgent attempt to put these capabilities to work for defensive purposes," Anthropic said on Tuesday. 

In 2023, the Biden Administration identified AI as a potential risk to financial stability. It was the first time that designation had been made, CBS News reported at the time.