AI leaders Anthropic and OpenAI are notable signatories to the letter. Around 120 companies and entities from the world of tech, finance, telecoms and related industries have signed an open letter calling for greater collective action on cyber defence by society and business in the face of growing AI-enabled security threats. AI leaders Anthropic and OpenAI are notable signatories to the letter – alongside companies such as Google, AWS, Visa, ServiceNow, PwC, Oracle, Microsoft, MasterCard, IBM, Hugging Face, Deutsche Telekom, Cloudflare and Accenture – warning of “a limited window to strengthen cyber defences”. “In the coming months, AI-enabled cyberattacks will become far more widespread and sophisticated as models around the world become increasingly capable,” the letter – published yesterday (27 August) – said, warning that vital infrastructure underpinning hospitals, water treatment plants and internet access could be at risk. The countermeasure to this, according to the letter, is to use advancing AI tech “to fix weaknesses that have accumulated for years” in order to “make our digital world much more secure”. The signatories wrote: “We call on leaders across industry and government to bring the full weight of their technology, resources and expertise to this effort. Put cyber-capable AI in the hands of defenders, starting with the teams protecting essential services.” The parties outlined three key collective response principles to AI cyberthreats: recognising that status-quo security won’t be sufficient; empowering more defenders with cyber-capable AI; and mobilising a collective response. “Security teams, particularly for critical infrastructure, have been historically under-resourced and need a surge in tools and resources,” the letter said. It added that “sharing tools, practical knowledge and verified fixes” can allow one organisation’s security advancements to “help protect many others”, and noted that “no single company should control the future”. The letter referred to a “defenders’ window”, during