Why You Can't Use the Most Powerful AI in the World
The world's most powerful artificial intelligence ("AI") has appeared. But you and I may never get the chance to use it...
Anthropic's Claude AI has picked up a lot of momentum this year. It has become the go-to resource for developers facing tough problems.
However, Claude is also becoming sophisticated... and dangerous.
This month, Anthropic announced a new Claude model named "Mythos Preview." Unlike previous models, Mythos excels at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in code. It's serious enough to threaten digital infrastructure around the world.
So Anthropic chose not to release Mythos to the public. Instead, it invited key U.S. businesses to a trial of Mythos called "Project Glasswing"... so they can find and strengthen their own vulnerabilities.
The project is creating guardrails for Anthropic's "dangerous" new product. But its release also sets a new precedent investors need to be aware of...
The Next Generation of Cybercrime
Mythos Preview will change the global cybersecurity landscape.
Before its release, cybercrime was a "human-scale" problem. Broadly speaking, hacks were limited by people's capacity to find and execute them.
But Mythos makes cybercrime a "machine-scale" problem. The tool can automate devastating hacks by chaining exploits together... finding vulnerabilities that humans miss.
In the wrong hands, Mythos could launch cyberattacks like the world has never seen before.
According to Anthropic, Mythos Preview "has already found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major operating system and web browser."
But this isn't the only shift playing out with Mythos. It's also changing Anthropic's distribution model...
Prior to Mythos, Anthropic's Claude had three tiers of services. Claude Haiku handles quick answers. Claude Sonnet handles everyday tasks. And Claude Opus lets users tackle more ambitious work. All three are available to the public.
Mythos Preview marks the arrival of a fourth tier for Claude. Draft materials from Anthropic have described this as a tier for models "larger and more intelligent than our Opus models."
In short, Project Glasswing hints at a new distribution model...
The Shift to Private AI Is Beginning
Before Mythos, state-of-the-art AI was sold to the public as a service. Users have gotten a flood of new models to choose from as AI companies fight for dominance.
Project Glasswing breaks that pattern, though. Instead of a service, this new model is being treated as a strategic resource. And instead of a broad rollout, it's only available to America's key industrial players...
Glasswing participants include Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and others. These companies are using Mythos to secure their online infrastructure before bad actors can catch up.
New models are powerful enough to be dangerous. So AI companies have little reason to release them to the public. It makes more sense to grant restricted access to Fortune 500 companies.
After the past three years of AI development, we've begun to expect every new model to reach the public's hands. With Mythos, we're seeing a new, private AI tier.
Only a small group of users may be able to see it – like the participants of Project Glasswing. And chances are good that packaging the top AI tools into a limited-access tier will become the norm.
The days of public, state-of-the-art AI could be winding down. After Project Glasswing, the newest tech may start being funneled into the hands of a few elite companies instead of everyday people.
Good investing,
Sean Michael Cummings
Further Reading
By the time a trend is obvious in the data, it's usually well underway. The earliest signals show up somewhere else – through the quiet movement of the people building the future. For investors paying attention, those shifts can reveal opportunities long before Wall Street catches on.
Every major tech revolution follows the same pattern: Pressure builds, systems fail, and new solutions take over. The smartphone was one of those solutions... Now, the same forces that created it are quietly signaling its eventual replacement.
Market Notes
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Bank of New York Mellon (BK)... financial services
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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)... semiconductors
Silicon Laboratories (SLAB)... semiconductors
Dell Technologies (DELL)... laptops and PCs
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Digital Realty Trust (DLR)... data-center REIT
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NEW LOWS OF NOTE LAST WEEK
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