Scoop: Lawmakers press White House to act on AI cyber threats - Axios

Ah, the classic congressional move: write a letter. 32 House lawmakers have penned a missive to National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, demanding action on AI cyber threats and name-checking Anthropic's Mythos. Because nothing says 'decisive leadership' like a politely worded plea that will likely gather dust in a White House inbox. The same Mythos, you may recall, that recently shattered every benchmark for autonomous cyber capability, because of course it did. Congress is essentially watching the AI equivalent of a car speeding toward a cliff and issuing a strongly worded recommendation that someone consider applying the brakes.

The letter's bipartisan shine is almost endearing — 32 of them, sitting down together to agree that yes, the model that can autonomously hack into systems might pose a problem. Well done, team. Meanwhile, the labs that created Mythos are already shipping the next version, and the National Cyber Director is presumably calculating how many staffers it takes to respond to 32 congresspeople without actually doing anything. The gap between 'urging action' and 'taking action' has never looked wider.

One almost feels sorry for Cairncross, who now gets to add this letter to the growing pile of things Congress has 'urged' about AI. But let's not pretend this is about safety — it's about having a paper trail for the eventual inquiry, when the first major AI-powered cyberattack hits. The letter is a prophylactic measure, not a solution. But by all means, keep writing. It worked so well for asbestos.