Opinion The AI craze is a double-edged sword for our banking giants Few companies outside the technology sector are as enthusiastic about rolling out artificial intelligence (AI) as massive banks. Financial institutions have the deep pockets to afford hefty technology spending, their bosses are constantly trying to lift productivity (including through automation), and they compete to maximise profits. As major Australian banks release results this week and next, following ANZ on Friday, it’s likely executives will tout how they’re using AI to improve operations. However, this excitement has lately been drowned out by the growing alarm from financial regulators concerned by the growing cybersecurity threats posed by AI – an issue brought into sharp relief by a flash new AI model that could be used to turbocharge cyberattacks. Central bankers often use hard-to-decipher language when talking about interest rates, but there’s no mistaking the concern from the regulators when discussing the risks posed by Mythos, the latest from AI giant Anthropic. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey summarised the problem last month, saying: “Anthropic may have found a way to crack the whole cyber risk world open.” Beyond this one AI model, the fear is that the rapid advancement of AI has turbocharged the threat of cyberattacks on banks. Announcing Mythos last month, Anthropic claimed the model was so powerful that it was dangerous to release it widely, and it was made available only to selected major companies. Since then, a growing chorus of financial types has warned about threat of Mythos and its ability to detect holes in cybersecurity systems. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) last week joined others in sounding the alarm, demanding a “step-change” in how banks manage AI-related risks. APRA warned the generation of AI models such as Mythos could increase the “probability, speed and