Cybersecurity risks and concerns about artificial intelligence in banking prompted warnings from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Speaking with host Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures,” Bessent noted the evolving threats after having met with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Wall Street bank executives in response to a reported breach of Anthropic’s Mythos A.I. model.
“The rapid advancement of AI has raised concerns among cybersecurity experts that increasingly sophisticated systems could be used to identify and exploit weaknesses in banking infrastructure, potentially allowing bad actors to carry out attacks at an unprecedented scale and speed,” Fox News reported.
“The pace of development has prompted closer coordination between regulators, financial institutions, and AI companies to strengthen defenses and improve resilience, especially as the Trump administration vies for a leading position in the race to the future,” the outlet added.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“I know you’ve called a meeting, some said it was an emergency meeting to talk about the banks and A.I. after a breach of Anthropic. What can you tell us about this issue?” Bartiromo asked Bessent near the end of a wide-ranging interview. “Should we be worried about A.I. hacking our bank accounts?”
“You should, Maria,” Bessent bluntly replied.
“The U.S. government has gotten involved. The AI companies are working with us,” he added. “What we’ve had in the past month was a step change in the power of one large language model. But we’re going to see it from the other A.I. companies.”
Anthropic rolled out a new A.I. model to a small group of companies last month, but then investigated a report of “unauthorized access to Mythos from one of its third-party vendor environments,” according to CBS News.
CBS News reported in April:
At the time, Anthropic only shared the tool with a small group of major companies, including Amazon, Apple, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase and Nvidia, amid concerns that the new model could be exploited by hackers. The goal was to help these companies harden their defenses before bad actors can gain access to Mythos or similar AI models.
ADVERTISEMENTFederal officials, security experts and leaders at global institutions like the International Monetary Fund have all raised concerns about what might happen if Mythos falls into the wrong hands. While Project Glasswing is intended to help companies insulate themselves from cybersecurity threats, some experts are concerned that Mythos could also be used to exploit IT infrastructure at banks, hospitals, government systems and other organizations.
“It’s important, Maria, that the U.S. stays ahead here. Imagine if China or some non-state actor were ahead of us,” Bessent told Bartiromo in his interview. “What we’re determined to do is to work with our A.I. companies to allow them to continue to innovate, but our charge is maintaining safety.”
“There is a very important calculus here between innovation and safety,” he said. “And the U.S. government, we’re going to make sure that things stay safe. ”
Bessent noted that the meeting with Powell and bank heads was “a little less dramatic than it seemed at the time” since the executives were already in Washington, D.C.
“The banks are working on their resiliency, and the U.S. government is working side by side with everyone,” he told Bartiromo. “And again, they’re very important for the U.S to continue to dominate here, set the global standard, and maintain our lead.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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