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Several senior federal technology officials responsible for agency cybersecurity and IT systems are frustrated by the lack of White House guidance on adopting Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, several sources told Nextgov/FCW.
Agency chief information officers, or CIOs, manage swaths of digital infrastructure that supports government operations and are facing renewed pressure to better defend agency networks as officials assess how powerful AI systems could help hackers find and exploit vulnerabilities faster.
Anthropic surgically rolled out Mythos access to select organizations in early April and recently expanded this effort — dubbed Project Glasswing — to partners in industry and other nations. The model has been going through a non-public distribution process on grounds that, in the wrong hands, it can significantly boost adversaries’ hacking capabilities.
Select parts of the U.S. government, such as the intelligence community, already have access. But many federal tech leaders have privately complained that the White House Office of the National Cyber Director hasn’t sufficiently briefed officials on plans for accessing, implementing and using the model to scan agency networks for vulnerabilities, according to five people familiar with the matter.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about their knowledge of issues with the White House.
The agitation varies across agencies. Some CIOs have taken issue with a lack of direction in how they would use Mythos to scan for digital flaws, while others are more concerned with why they haven’t gained access to the model altogether.
There has been “tremendous frustration” with ONCD, the first person said. The ire stems, in part, from the fact that ONCD has largely prevented government tech leaders from making decisions about AI model use, while at the same time devoting much of its energy toward engagements with industry about AI policy.
“There’s frustration watching the private sector utilize [these models]” while many agency CIOs “are arbitrarily blocked,” said the first person, adding that there’s been a “general prohibition” imposed on anyone who wants to engage with Anthropic further. They said there’s been near-complete silence from ONCD, despite many government agencies wanting to use Mythos to find unseen vulnerabilities and fix them to better defend their networks.
“Nobody briefed us on [Mythos],” the second person told Nextgov/FCW. “I think the frustration stems from there being zero communication on the topic from ONCD.”
Absent guidance from ONCD or other executive branch agencies, Anthropic held briefings for federal CIOs in early May to help them learn more about Mythos and how it would impact the broader cybersecurity landscape, Nextgov/FCW first reported.
The concerns are significant because they suggest that some of the federal government’s most target-rich agencies may lack clear direction or consistent access to a tool that could help them find and fix security flaws more quickly.
The federal enterprise is a prime target for hackers, as adversaries have for years sought access to government emails, employee records and other sensitive data.
Several top officials have made plans to leave the White House cyber office in the last few weeks, including its head of policy.
ONCD did not respond to a request for comment. Anthropic declined to comment.
The third person, who has held discussions with at least three federal CIOs, said several are asking the private sector to help them learn more about Mythos and protect their networks from AI-supported cyberattacks.
“Federal CIOs are taking a system-wide view and approach to their technology,” the third person told Nextgov/FCW. “While they are interested in frontier AI models’ capabilities to identify vulnerabilities in their networks, they know they can’t wait for access. So they’re taking steps now to coordinate with industry to accelerate their patching process, receive vulnerability disclosures as quickly as possible and operationalize a more automated remediation process.”
The fourth person cautioned that, while there are frustrations, CIOs’ concerns are not necessarily uniform across government. Pure access to powerful AI tools like Mythos is “not some magical silver bullet,” the person said, because agencies would still have to validate the vulnerabilities they flag and determine how to respond. Some CIO offices may be more eager for Mythos access than others, depending on their cybersecurity maturity and other factors, the person added.
While ONCD may be perceived as an obstacle, the office has been lobbying for broader access to frontier model capabilities in some cases, though its approach “may not be uniform,” this fourth person said.
Access dynamics could change in the coming months. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is planning a binding operational directive that would push agencies to prioritize the most urgent risks to federal networks, a shift informed in part by AI-enabled cyber threats, the agency’s acting director said Tuesday.
The administration’s approach to AI has shifted in recent months as officials confront an emerging class of cyber-focused models that can rapidly identify vulnerabilities across computer networks, becoming a major driver of discussions over how AI systems could reshape defensive and offensive cyber operations.
President Donald Trump recently signed an AI security executive order that encourages developers to submit powerful new models to a 30-day government review before public release. On Friday, he signed a memorandum aimed at speeding up government use of advanced AI across the military and intelligence community.
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