A spectre is hanging over humanity: the spectre of superintelligent AI. While governments busy themselves with the mundane work of politics and putting out the fire of the day, the most consequential technological development since the splitting of the atom is accelerating beyond anyone’s ability to control it.

We are entering an era where the AI systems themselves are threats, not just humans

We are entering an era where the AI systems themselves are threats, not just humans

Anthropic, one of the world’s leading AI companies, recently announced a new AI system, Claude Mythos. The model can autonomously find and exploit critical security vulnerabilities in every major operating system and internet browser underpinning our digital infrastructure, including flaws that survived decades of human review.

Anthropic withheld the model from public release because, in their own words, ‘the fallout for economies, public safety and national security could be severe’. The UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) confirmed the assessment: Mythos is substantially more capable at cyber offence than any model it has previously tested.

But the government’s response has been tepid. They have simply had the AISI publish a blogpost about Mythos and had the Technology Secretary tell businesses they should brush up on cybersecurity and sign up for a cyber attack early warning service.

The........

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