White House Officials Questioned Tech CEOs on AI Security Ahead of Anthropic's Mythos Release

Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent held a confidential phone call with leading technology CEOs to discuss the security posture of large language models and response protocols for cyber attacks, according to sources familiar with the matter. The meeting occurred one week before Anthropic released its Mythos model, which carries significant cybersecurity implications.

Participants in the call included Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora. Officials discussed the security posture of large language models, safe deployment practices, and response strategies if models scale in favor of attackers.

OpenAI declined to comment on the meeting. Anthropic confirmed participation but did not provide details, stating only that the company "has been in touch with White House officials about cybersecurity in recent weeks and has made itself available to support the government's own testing and evaluation of the technology."

Anthropic emphasized that it briefed "senior officials across the U.S. government on Mythos Preview's full capabilities, including both its offensive and defensive cyber applications" prior to external release. The company said bringing government officials into discussions early about model capabilities, risks, and mitigation strategies was a priority.

Mythos Launch and Government Concerns

Anthropic released its Mythos AI model to a limited group of companies on Tuesday while assessing ways to prevent malicious use. Initial launch partners included Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, and CrowdStrike.

The cybersecurity concerns surrounding the release escalated this week when Treasury Secretary Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell convened an urgent meeting with heads of the largest U.S. banks to address potential threats posed by Mythos. The meetings signal heightened concern from the Trump administration about advanced AI-powered cyber tools.

The development represents a notable continuation of Anthropic's involvement in White House AI policy discussions, despite President Donald Trump's stated intention to strip Anthropic's Claude platform from federal agencies.

Ongoing Legal Challenges

Anthropic faces mixed results in its legal challenges against the Department of Defense supply chain risk designation. A federal appeals court on Wednesday denied the company's request to temporarily block the DOD blacklisting, weeks after a federal judge in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction in a separate legal challenge. The opposing rulings mean Anthropic remains blocked from DOD contracts but can continue working with other federal agencies while the cases proceed.

What This Means

The White House's decision to brief tech CEOs before Mythos's release and subsequent emergency banking sector meetings indicate government recognition that advanced AI models now pose direct national security considerations. Rather than purely regulatory oversight, the Trump administration appears to be treating cutting-edge AI as a critical infrastructure issue requiring real-time coordination with financial institutions and technology leaders. Anthropic's simultaneous legal battles with DOD and policy inclusion at the highest levels suggests the company occupies an unusual position—under government scrutiny but also considered essential to national security planning.