Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said Friday that British banks remain unable to access Anthropic PBC’s new AI tool, despite an earlier announcement promising early access to the technology.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Bailey emphasised the importance of controlled access given the risks involved. "given our concerns about the risks involved in this it is really important there is access," he said, adding that banks are turning to other AI models to evaluate and strengthen their cyberdefenses.
Anthropic had announced in April that it would provide UK banks with early access to its latest AI tool so they could bolster cybersecurity ahead of the tool’s broader release. The company’s most recent model, Mythos, is described as capable of automatically discovering previously unknown software bugs - flaws that could expose organisations to severe cyberattacks.
Bailey said a staged implementation known as Glasswing phase two has been under development for roughly six weeks but has not yet been rolled out. "I think this has been somewhat caught up in the process with the US administration," he told Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders.
Beyond the immediate access issue, Bailey used the interview to press for a multinational strategy on cyber risk. He warned that the spillover effects of major cyber incidents are sufficiently large that they cannot be managed by a single-country response. "What I would say is that the spillovers from this sort of some cyber risk are so big that we can’t just have a single sort of national approach towards dealing with the consequences and mitigating it," he said. "There’s got to be an international approach to this."
Clear summary
UK banks have not yet received the early access to Anthropic’s AI cybersecurity tool that had been promised. Governor Bailey noted banks are using other models in the interim, highlighted delays in the Glasswing phase two rollout, and called for cross-border collaboration to manage cyber risks.
Key points
- UK banks remain unable to access Anthropic PBC’s AI tool despite a prior promise of early access.
- Anthropic’s Mythos model can identify previously unknown software bugs, which could reveal serious vulnerabilities.
- Governor Bailey urged an international response to cyber threats, citing large spillover effects beyond any single nation.
Risks and uncertainties
- Delayed access to advanced AI cybersecurity tools for banks may leave financial institutions reliant on alternative models with different capabilities - impacting the banking sector.
- The potential for Mythos-discovered bugs to expose critical vulnerabilities creates uncertainty for technology and software providers, and for companies relying on their systems.
- International coordination challenges could hinder timely mitigation of cross-border cyber incidents, affecting markets and sectors with significant interconnected infrastructure.