The meeting was attended by multiple stakeholders including the Ministry of Electronics. IT officials, DFS Secy and CERT-In officials.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired a high-level meeting today in New Delhi with banks and key stakeholders to assess the potential impact of emerging issues linked to “Mythos” on India’s fast-growing fintech ecosystem, NDTV sources mentioned.
The meeting took place amid rising concerns within the Indian financial sector over disruptions and risks associated with Anthropic’s “Mythos” AI model, prompting the government and regulators to step in for a closer evaluation.
Mythos was launched by Anthropic on April 7, equipped with advanced capabilities for defensive cybersecurity tasks. As with most AI models, it came with a warning that could pose critical threats to public safety and national security. The official technical document revealed that Mythos identified critical faults in every major operating system and web browser it examined, and 99% of those vulnerabilities remain unpatched which means that the world’s most widely used digital infrastructure is, in theory, exposed. Descriptions of the model were inadvertently stored in a publicly accessible data cache and reviewed by Fortune, which reported that Anthropic itself believes Mythos poses “unprecedented cybersecurity risks.”
Officials in the meeting have indicated that the discussion focused on understanding the nature of the issue, its transmission channels within the banking sector and fintech landscape, and any possible systemic implications.
The meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was with PSBs on cybersecurity and AI. According to NDTV sources, the meeting was also attended by Ministry of Electronics and IT officials, DFS Secy and CERT-In officials.
Sources added that the finance minister emphasised the need for coordinated action between banks, fintech firms and regulatory bodies to maintain trust in the system. Ensuring consumer protection and safeguarding transaction integrity were key themes during the discussions.
An official statement from the finance ministry is expected later in the day, which could provide more clarity on the government’s assessment and the next steps on the matter.
Little backdrop on the Mythos buzz
Even before the stakes had risen to call for a central government meeting, Mythos has been viewed as a topic of intrigue and concern by many officials all over the world. RBI officials have, over the past two weeks, held consultations with counterparts at the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to better understand the evolving risks.
Among the regulators, the RBI may also seek direct engagement with Anthropic as per sources.
Similarly, India’s payments body, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is also attempting to secure early access to Mythos along with a small group of banks to identify vulnerabilities and day-zero cyber risks before any wider deployment, according to NDTV sources.
However, such access may not be easy to obtain. A fourth source aware of the matter said Anthropic hosts Mythos on tightly controlled servers in the United States, making it difficult to test the model on local data in overseas markets.
At present, Mythos access has been restricted to a limited number of organisations responsible for maintaining critical digital infrastructure in the United States. Reuters had earlier reported that Anthropic plans to extend access to European banks in the near future.
For India, this is especially important since it runs one of the largest and most active digital financial ecosystems globally. Platforms like NPCI enable millions of real-time transactions on a day-to-day basis. While Mythos’ scale brings efficiency, it also adds vulnerability to the equation which can be detrimental to a sector like banking and financial services. Coordination between banks, fintechs, and regulators has never been more critical.
The Department of Financial Services also issued its first official statement on the matter. DFS Secretary M Nagaraju emphasised the need for a resilient financial system amid rapid technological shifts, noting that AI will play an increasingly important role in the sector and can also enable greater lending through AI-driven underwriting. He pushed back against the idea of viewing AI purely as a threat. He called for closer collaboration between governments, regulators, and technology providers, and stressed that policy frameworks should stay flexible while addressing risks like cybersecurity threats and market volatility.
