Zero Day.
'City killers'.
1. Anthropic’s flagship Mythos AI model reportedly infiltrated nearly all of the National Security Agency (NSA) ‘s classified systems within a few hours during an authorized red-team evaluation on June 11. This incident now seems to be the main reason for a broad U.S. government directive on export controls issued the following day. Senator Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, disclosed that General Joshua Rudd, who simultaneously leads the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, told him directly that Anthropic’s Mythos model “broke into almost all of our classified systems, not in weeks, but in hours.” The statement, first reported by The Economist, has not been formally confirmed by any government agency, but has rapidly reshaped the narrative around Washington’s decision to pull Anthropic’s two most advanced models from public access. (Source: cybersecuritynews.com. Italics mine.)
2. The west’s artificial intelligence-armed adversaries may succeed within months in developing attacks that could overwhelm the defenses of governments and companies, the cyber chiefs of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership have warned. For now, the west has an advantage — advances in commercial AI and their integration into their militaries and spying capabilities appear to have outpaced those of Russia, China and others. But that lead may not last for long, the rare joint warning by the US-led alliance, which also includes the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, said. “The timeline is not years, it is months,” the joint communiqué said. (Source: ft.com)
3. As fears about AI hacking capabilities grow, OpenAI on Monday made a slew of cybersecurity-focused announcements, including an improved version of its limited-access security-specialized model GPT-5.5-Cyber, expanded international work with governments and other institutions to give them “trusted access” to the company's latest cybersecurity-focused models, and releasing its Codex Security scanner as an app plug-in. As advances across the AI industry leave critical open-source projects at increasing risk of falling behind, though, the company also said on Monday that it is launching an effort known as Patch the Planet, founded with the prominent research-focused security firm Trail of Bits and in collaboration with vulnerability management firms HackerOne and Calif. The project has already begun its work offering free security consulting services to open source maintainers to not only help them find and patch vulnerabilities, but also support them in strengthening their code bases and incorporating AI security tools into their development process. (Sources: wired.com, trailofbits.com, hackerone.com, calif.io)
4. President Trump accelerated his efforts to boost the burgeoning quantum-computing industry, signing a pair of executive orders aimed at speeding the development of advanced quantum computers and mitigating the security threats they present. One of the orders the president signed Monday directs federal agencies, including the Energy Department, to work with the private sector and academics to deploy a quantum computer powerful enough to conduct scientific research by 2028. Such benchmarks are seen as crucial to showing that the technology has real-world applications. Quantum computers are capable of solving problems much faster than traditional supercomputers, making them a growing priority for countries around the world. Mr. Trump signed a second executive order directing agencies and government security experts to prepare for quantum systems that can evade standard encryption more quickly than previously anticipated. The goal is to bolster security systems across the government and private sector so that advanced quantum hackers can’t take down critical infrastructure. The orders coincide with billions of dollars in funding for quantum companies being awarded by the Commerce Department and a private-sector investment frenzy from companies including International Business Machines, Microsoft and Google. (Source: wsj.com)
5. Robert Shiller:
Moments after ChatGPT was released in 2022, its emergence swiftly unleashed a flood of alarming prognostications, including the possibility of enormous job losses. Many of those warnings were emanating from the leaders of the technology themselves. Little wonder that Americans are now highly worried about the impact A.I. will have on their futures, with a recent poll finding that 70 percent believe that the technology will reduce employment opportunities. Like many others, I believe A.I. could lower employment. But unlike most, I don’t necessarily blame the technology itself. Instead, I worry about the potency of the fear it is generating. Our brains are wired to respond to stories. Narratives floating in a population can affect individuals’ economic decisions about whether to buy a big house, or whether to send their kids to an expensive private school or even whether to have kids at all. When millions of people make millions and millions of decisions based upon negative expectations, there is a risk that fear can actually help birth the reality. (Source: nytimes.com. Professor Shiller’s most recent book is entitled “Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events”)
6. Morgan Stanley research note:
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