Aaron Mak, John Sakellariadis, Dana Nickel
Our Take: Does the approach taken to law making by governments rely a little too much on input from those who perhaps ought to be restricted by the laws that are made? This is a pivotal moment: policymakers want operational help fast, but firms want clear bounds on data sharing, liability and commercial secrecy.
Your Takeaway: If you work with or run tech/security businesses, be ready to engage but insist on narrow, well‑justified requests, explicit protections for sensitive operational details, and clarity on how shared information will be used and protected; consider tightening disclosure policies and seeking confidentiality or legal safeguards before responding.
Tech and cyber companies were sent questions about artificial intelligence-led cybersecurity threats, including those posed by Anthropic’s advanced AI model, Mythos.
Highlights
The White House has been taking steps to defuse a monthslong legal battle with Anthropic over the company’s efforts to set ethical limits on government use of AI — a fight that led President Donald Trump in February to ban all federal agencies from using the AI company’s software. Since then, growing awareness of Mythos’ cyber prowess — as well as concerns that unauthorized users might be commandeering technology — has agencies clamoring for access to the tool.
One list of questions sent by the White House to some tech and cyber firms, obtained by POLITICO, covers a range of technical and policy considerations, including which widely used coding projects should be prioritized and more basic questions about how the public and private sectors can work together on initiatives such as Project Glasswing. One question simply asks: “What is the most effective role for the government?”
The request for additional, detailed information from these companies reflects the intensifying focus in Washington on the evolving threat that hyper-advanced AI tools may pose to national security and digital infrastructure.
The questions, from the White House’s Office of the National Cyber Director, focus on how specific sectors in the tech and cybersecurity industries can work with the White House to boost their defenses with AI, these people said. Companies have been asked to respond to them by Friday.
The White House has asked a group of tech companies to answer a set of questions this week about how to ward off digital attacks that frontier AI tools could soon enable, according to four people with knowledge of discussions between the administration and the tech sector.