“Today, the White House hosted an introductory meeting with Anthropic that was both productive and constructive,” the White House said in a statement Friday evening. “We discussed opportunities for collaboration, as well as shared approaches and protocols to address the challenges associated with scaling this technology. The conversation also explored the balance between advancing innovation and ensuring safety. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and will host similar discussions with other leading AI companies.”
The meeting comes less than two months after the White House and Defense Department declared Anthropic a risk to the country’s national security supply chain, objecting to the company’s insistence on limiting its software’s use for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons, while President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to cease using its products.
The unprecedented legal standoff between the government and a leading American AI firm has caused federal agencies to fear running afoul of the law if they use any of Anthropic products — including Mythos, whose existence was announced just last week.
Alongside the Pentagon and Treasury Department, at least three further agencies have been reported to have terminated the use of Anthropic products, including the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
But now some government offices are skirting the government’s edicts so they can evaluate Mythos’ potential threat to their sensitive computer networks. Bessent’s Treasury Department — which recently sought access to Mythos in order to determine its implications for banking firms’ cyberdefenses — is one of many now clamoring for guidance on how to proceed.
According to an email sent to federal agencies and obtained by POLITICO, the Office of Management and Budget is now mulling whether agencies will be allowed to use a “modified” version of Mythos.
“We’re working closely with model providers, other industry partners, and the intelligence community to ensure the appropriate guardrails and safeguards are in place before potentially releasing a modified version of the model to agencies,” Gregory Barbaccia, OMB’s chief information officer, wrote to multiple federal agencies earlier this week. Barbaccia added that OMB and the Office of the National Cyber Director will “continue to keep everyone updated and are expecting to have more information in the coming weeks.”
Cairncross, who heads the cyber office, convened a call this week with representatives from private sector companies to discuss Mythos, according to one participant on the call, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Cairncross said his office has the backing of Wiles and Vice President JD Vance to lead the Trump administration’s response to the hacking capabilities of Anthropic’s powerful new model, said the person. During the roughly 10-minute call, Cairncross both commended Mythos as a sign of U.S. AI innovation and warned companies about the risks it presented to their networks.
A White House official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record, told POLITICO the administration is engaging with government and industry, including frontier AI labs whose models require technical evaluation and can help secure critical U.S. software vulnerabilities. “The collective effort of all involved will ultimately benefit industry, and our country, as a whole,” the person said.
Spokespeople for OMB, the cyber office, Treasury and the vice president’s office did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment ahead of Friday’s meeting.
John Hewitt Jones contributed to this report.