British financial institutions continue to face barriers in obtaining access to Anthropic’s Mythos artificial intelligence system for cybersecurity assessment purposes, more than six weeks after initial concerns surfaced, according to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey’s statements on Friday.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Bailey explained that while Anthropic has expressed willingness to provide the models for testing purposes, political complications appear to be creating obstacles.
“It hasn’t happened yet and I think this has been somewhat caught up in the process with the U.S. administration,” Bailey commented during the interview conducted at a central banking conference in Reykjavik.
“Quite why the process is a bit different from one company to another, I’m afraid I can’t explain to you. Obviously, from our point of view, given our concern about the risks involved in this, it’s very important that there is access,” he stated.
The AI company has been engaged in disputes with the U.S. administration regarding safety measures for potential military applications of its artificial intelligence technology.
In previous statements last month, Bailey warned that “Anthropic may have found a way to crack the whole cyber risk world open.”
However, cybersecurity professionals have since informed Reuters that concerns about unlimited hacking capabilities using this model may be exaggerated.
President Donald Trump recently delayed the signing of a comprehensive AI executive order that would have established voluntary guidelines for AI companies to collaborate with federal authorities before releasing advanced AI systems to the public.
Bailey, who serves as head of the international Financial Stability Board, emphasized the need for worldwide coordination in addressing hacking vulnerabilities.
“Spillovers from this sort of cyber risk are so big that we can’t just have a single sort of national approach,” he explained.
“Anybody who thought, ‘Well, I’ve dealt with my banks, that’s okay’, I’m afraid that won’t work, because they’re all so heavily interconnected.”
