The past few weeks have brought apparently alarming news of Mythos, an AI that can identify cybersecurity flaws in a matter of moments, leaving operating systems and software vulnerable to hackers. The cybersecurity community is now beginning to get a better sense of how Mythos may change the face of cybersecurity – and not necessarily for the worse. What is Mythos and why are people concerned by it? Mythos is an AI created by Anthropic. Its existence was accidentally revealed last month when people unearthed content on the company’s website, not due for publication, which had been left unsecured for anyone to see. Advertisement According to Anthropic, there’s a good reason the model had been kept behind closed doors: it is – by accident rather than design – extremely good at hacking. It can allegedly discover flaws in virtually any software, if asked, that would allow the user to break in. The company says that Mythos found thousands of high- and critical-severity vulnerabilities in operating systems and other software. Anthropic did not respond to New Scientist’s request for comment, but the company said on its website that “the fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe.” Free newsletter Sign up to The Weekly The best of New Scientist, including long-reads, culture, podcasts and news, each week. The company says it took the responsible step of keeping it hidden. So nobody at all is able to use it? Not quite. Anthropic has decided to make it available to a select group of technology and finance giants like Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, JPMorganChase, Microsoft and NVIDIA under something called Project Glasswing so that they can uncover any bugs in their own software before someone else does. Members of a private online forum have also managed to gain unauthorised access to