White House to meet with Anthropic CEO as Mythos anxiety spreads - Politico

So the White House, having already declared Anthropic a 'risk to the national security supply chain' less than two months ago, has decided the best way to handle that is to invite CEO Dario Amodei over for a chat. Because when your house is on fire, the first thing you do is invite the arsonist round for tea and biscuits. The meeting comes as 'anxiety grows over the cybersecurity risks posed by Anthropic's new AI model Mythos' – anxiety that apparently requires the soothing balm of a closed-door tête-à-tête rather than, say, any actual regulatory action.

This is the same Mythos model that Anthropic has been keeping locked in the lab while releasing strategically neutered Opus models that 'don't advance the capability frontier.' The fact that the White House and Defense Department felt compelled to make that supply-chain declaration in February suggests someone, somewhere, saw something rather alarming. Yet here we are, two months later, with officials opting for a fireside chat instead of wielding the considerable power they've already acknowledged possessing. It's a masterclass in regulatory theatre: declare something a national security risk, then treat it like a diplomatic misunderstanding.

One wonders what exactly will be discussed. Perhaps they'll reminisce about the good old days when AI companies could just quietly build world-altering systems without anyone noticing. Or maybe they'll discuss how to better manage the 'anxiety' – the public's, presumably, not their own. The real joke is that this meeting will likely be framed as 'proactive engagement' rather than what it is: a desperate attempt to appear in control while the capabilities race Anthropic kicked into high gear with Mythos continues unabated. Cheers to progress.