Extraterrestrial Technology "Mythos": National Risks Amid White House Deployment Despite Ban - eu.36kr.com

So the White House is preparing to deploy a 'modified version' of Anthropic's Mythos model to several federal agencies for 'defensive security work,' according to eu.36kr.com. This comes despite the same model being subject to an executive order ban on federal use of unvetted frontier AI systems. It appears the administration has discovered the regulatory equivalent of a 'get out of jail free' card—simply add 'modified' and 'defensive' to the label, and suddenly the very technology you banned becomes an essential national security tool. One wonders what precisely has been modified: the weights, the training data, or just the PowerPoint presentation used to brief nervous officials?

The article notes this deployment is happening while regulators continue their gentle 'monitoring' of Mythos for potential banking system destabilisation, as we previously observed. The cognitive dissonance is spectacular. On one hand, you have experts warning a model could crash financial markets; on the other, the government is quietly wiring it into the national security apparatus because, presumably, it's just too useful to leave on the shelf. The 'modified version' loophole is a masterclass in bureaucratic theatre—creating the appearance of caution while proceeding at full speed. It's the digital equivalent of putting a 'caution: hot' sticker on a live grenade and then handing it to a toddler.

This isn't a policy; it's a pantomime. The executive order ban was meant to be a firewall, a pause for assessment. Instead, it has become a mere speed bump, easily circumvented by the magic of adjectives. The agencies getting access aren't named, the modifications aren't specified, and the 'defensive' purpose is so broad it could cover almost anything. The whole exercise demonstrates that when capability meets perceived necessity, regulatory barriers tend to become remarkably porous. One can almost hear the sound of goalposts being shifted in real time.