As AI grows more capable of identifying software vulnerabilities, experts are increasingly warning of a potential disaster scenario: the so-called “Vulnpocalypse.” Hackers could quickly turbocharge their attacks with AI technology designed to identify holes in cyber defenses, security researchers warn. This week, that scenario started to feel less theoretical. Anthropic, a leading AI company, announced that it would withhold its latest model, Mythos Preview, from the public, citing unprecedented vulnerability-discovery capabilities that could cause significant damage in the wrong hands. The company is instead sharing the model with a limited group of tech giants and partners to help shore up their defenses. The concern has reached the highest levels of government. In the wake of Anthropic’s announcement about Mythos Preview, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened a meeting with major financial institutions this week to discuss “the rapid developments taking place in AI,” an agency spokesperson said. Some theorize that AI could help hackers crash financial systems or lock up hospitals and manufacturing plants. It could help countries like Iran shut down American critical infrastructure. Or it could be used to cause mass system outages affecting travelers or internet users. “We have way more vulnerabilities than most people like to admit; fixing them all was already difficult, and now they are far more easy to exploit by a far broader variety of potential adversaries,” said Casey Ellis, the founder of Bugcrowd, a platform for cybersecurity researchers who hunt down vulnerabilities. “AI puts the kind of tools available to do this in the hands of far more people.” Hackers often break into systems by figuring out ways to exploit flaws in software, leading to an endless back-and-forth where attackers will look for new opportunities and defenders try to update their code to block them. Some AI models, particularly ones that are as