Pentagon Deploys Anthropic’s Mythos AI Model to Rapidly Patch Longstanding Vulnerabilities

U.S. government even as it races to complete a transition away from the AI company, the Defense Department’s top technology official said on Tuesday. Emil Michael, the Defense Department’s chief technology officer and under secretary for research and engineering, told attendees at a conference in Washington, DC, that the Pentagon continues to execute on its plan to remove Anthropic’s products from its work in the coming months.

He described the Mythos issue as “a national security moment” where the government has hardened up networks. Mythos was announced on April 7 and is being deployed as part of Anthropic’s “Project Glasswing,” a controlled initiative under which select organizations are permitted to use the unreleased Claude Mythos Preview model for defensive cybersecurity purposes.

According to Anthropic, Mythos is capable of detecting decades-old vulnerabilities in web browsers, infrastructure and software.

Michael said that while those vulnerabilities have always existed, artificial intelligence tools like Mythos mean they can now be found and patched faster — but also exploited faster. He added that Anthropic’s advantage is temporary. Michael said that models from OpenAI, xAI and Google will come soon.

Rappler reported that the comments came as the Pentagon balances immediate defensive needs against a broader decision to distance itself from Anthropic. The DOD declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the two sides failed to agree on how Anthropic’s models could be used by the agency. Anthropic sued the Trump administration in March to try to reverse the Pentagon’s blacklisting.

Rappler reported that Michael’s remarks on Tuesday underscored the tension between urgent cybersecurity requirements and longer-term supply chain concerns. The deployment of Mythos represents one of the final uses of Anthropic technology as the phase-out proceeds.