OpenAI expands GPT-5.5-Cyber access to challenge Anthropic Mythos in AI-powered defense

OpenAI gives European companies access to its latest models to bolster resilience

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - U.S. artificial intelligence giant OpenAI said it was granting access to its latest models including GPT-5.5-Cyber to Deutsche Telekom, BBVA and dozens more European companies to help bolster their resilience to vulnerabilities in their systems. Other companies added to the scheme included Spain's Telefonica, Britain's Sophos and German financial services firm Scalable Capital, Open AI said. OpenAI's "Trusted Access for Cyber" programme gives verified companies in vital sectors such as financial services, telecoms, energy and public services access to its models, including ⁠precise safeguards for defensive work. OpenAI's MD for EMEA, Emmanuel Marill, said there was an important balance to be struck between access, usefulness and safety as AI became more capable. "We need to block dangerous activity, while making sure trusted defenders have tools that are genuinely useful in protecting systems, finding vulnerabilities and responding to threats quickly," he said on Tuesday. The release of Mythos by OpenAI's rival Anthropic last month significantly upped the risks posed to banks and other companies from new frontier AI models. Their capabilities ⁠to code at a high level have given them an unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity risks and devise ways to exploit them, raising fears they could be used to destabilise banks and other companies. OpenAI has offered the European Commission open access to cybersecurity features, Brussels said on ⁠Monday, but a Commission spokesperson added that Anthropic had not been as forthcoming. Former British finance minister George Osborne, who heads the company's "OpenAI for Countries" initiative, on Monday sent an explanatory letter ⁠to the Commission, saying that democratizing access to defensive tools could strengthen shared security, support public safety and reflect European priorities. OpenAI also said on Monday it was setting ⁠up a new company with more than $4 billion in initial investment to help organisations build and deploy AI systems, and would acquire AI consulting firm Tomoro to quickly scale up the unit. Reporting by Paul Sandle. Editing by Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

OpenAI rolls out new model for cybersecurity teams a month after Anthropic's Mythos debut

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the BlackRock Infrastructure Summit on March 11, 2026, in Washington. OpenAI on Thursday announced that GPT-5.5-Cyber, a variation of its latest artificial intelligence model, is rolling out in a limited preview capacity to vetted cybersecurity teams, a month after rival Anthropic captivated investors and government officials with Claude Mythos Preview. The preview of GPT-5.5-Cyber is not intended to be a major step up in terms of cyber capability, but is instead trained to be more permissive on security-related tasks, OpenAI said in a blog post. OpenAI announced GPT-5.5 late last month. With the cyber-specific version, vetted teams will have an easier time using OpenAI's latest model for workflows like vulnerability identification and triage, patch validation and malware analysis, the company said. The safeguards built into the generally available GPT-5.5 model would have made that more challenging. "GPT‑5.5‑Cyber lets a smaller set of partners study advanced workflows where specialized access behavior may matter," OpenAI said in the blog post. In rolling out Mythos last month, Anthropic decided to limit access to a select group of companies as part of a new cybersecurity initiative called Project Glasswing. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei met with senior members of the Trump administration to talk about the model and its potential power, even after the company had been blacklisted by the Pentagon just weeks earlier. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with major U.S. bank CEOs to discuss Mythos last month, and Vice President JD Vance and Bessent held a call with leading tech CEOs ahead of the model's release.

OpenAI rolls out new model for cybersecurity teams a month after Anthropic's Mythos debut

* OpenAI introduces GPT‑5.5‑Cyber following uproar around Anthropic Mythos * It's a modest upgrade focused on permissive cybersecurity tasks like vuln triage and malware analysis * Access is limited to vetted teams in the Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) program, unlike Anthropic's more restricted Mythos Preview OpenAI has introduced GPT-5.5-Cyber, an upgraded cybersecurity model looking to take some of the shine off Anthropic's Mythos Preview release. Coming less than a month after the launch of GPT-5.4-Cyber, this is not a major upgrade by any means, and users should not expect many changes, OpenAI explained. instead, users should expect a model trained to be more permissive when it comes to cybersecurity tasks, making it easier to use for things like vulnerability identification, triage, patch validation, and malware analysis. Competing with Mythos "GPT‑5.5‑Cyber lets a smaller set of partners study advanced workflows where specialized access behavior may matter," OpenAI said in a blog post. "The cyber defense ecosystem is broad, and GPT‑5.5 and GPT‑5.5‑Cyber play different roles in meeting the needs of organizations and researchers across it, depending on the task, the setting, and the safeguards around how the model is used. For most teams, GPT‑5.5 with TAC is our strongest broadly useful model for legitimate defensive work, with strong safeguards against misuse." As with the previous version, this edition will only be given only to vetted cybersecurity teams. However, unlike its key competitor - Mythos, which was given to only a handful of companies, OpenAI's model will be offered to a broader set of users, members of the Trusted Access for Cyber (TAC) program. Back when it introduced GPT-5.4-Cyber, OpenAI said it was scaling TAC to "thousands of verified individual defenders and hundreds of teams responsible for defending critical software." Anthropic first disclosed Project Glasswing in early April 2026, saying that the AI model Mythos Preview was too powerful to be given freely. Apparently, it was able to surface decades-old vulnerabilities in some of the most widely-used operating systems in existence, and chain them together to create working exploits. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

How dangerous is Anthropic's Mythos AI? | Bruce Schneier

The system's power is comparable to others - but it still has frightening implications for the future of hacking Last month, Anthropic made a remarkable announcement about its new model, Claude Mythos Preview: it was so good at finding security vulnerabilities in software that the company would not release it to the general public. Instead, it would only be available to a select group of companies to scan and fix their own software. The announcement requires context - but it contained an essential truth. While Anthropic's model is really good at finding software vulnerabilities, so are other models. The UK's AI Security Institute found that OpenAI's GPT-5.5, already generally available, is comparable in capability. The company Aisle reproduced Anthropic's published results with smaller, cheaper models. At the same time, Anthropic's refusal to publicly release its new model makes a virtue out of necessity. Mythos is very expensive to run, and the company doesn't appear to have the resources for a general release. What better way to juice the company's valuation than to hint at capabilities but not prove them, and then have others parrot their claims? Nonetheless, the truth is scary. Modern generative AI systems - not just Anthropic's, but OpenAI's and other, open-source models - are getting really good at finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in software. And that has important ramifications for cybersecurity: on both the offense and the defense. Attackers will use these capabilities to find, and automatically hack, vulnerabilities in systems of all kinds. They will be able to break into critical systems around the world, sometimes to plant ransomware and make money, sometimes to steal data for espionage purposes, and sometimes to control systems in times of hostility. This will make the world a much more dangerous, and more volatile, place. But at the same time, defenders will use these same capabilities to find, and then patch, many of those same systems. For example, Mozilla used Mythos to find 271 vulnerabilities in Firefox. Those vulnerabilities have been fixed, and will never again be available to attackers. In the future, AIs automatically finding and fixing vulnerabilities in all software will be a normal part of the development process, which will result in much more secure software. Of course, it's not that simple. We should expect a deluge of both attackers using newly found vulnerabilities to break into systems, and at the same time much more frequent software updates for every app and device we use. But lots of systems aren't patchable, and many systems that are don't get patched, meaning that many vulnerabilities will stick around. And it does seem that finding and exploiting is easier than finding and fixing. All of this points to a more dangerous short-term future. Organizations will need to adapt their security to this new reality. But it's the long term that we need to focus on. Mythos isn't unique, but it's more capable than many models that have come before. And it's less capable than models that will come after. AIs are much better at writing software than they were just six months ago. There's every reason to believe that they will continue to get better, which means that they will get better at writing more secure software. The endgame gives AI-enhanced defenders advantages over AI-enhanced attackers. Even more interesting are the broader implications. The same searching, pattern-matching and reasoning capabilities that make these models so good at analyzing software almost certainly apply to similar systems. The tax code isn't computer code, but it's a series of algorithms with inputs and outputs. It has vulnerabilities; we call them tax loopholes. It has exploits; we call them tax avoidance strategies. And it has black hat hackers: attorneys and accountants. Just as these models are finding hundreds of vulnerabilities in complex software systems, we should expect them to be equally effective at finding many new and undiscovered tax loopholes. I am confident that the major investment banks are working on this right now, in secret. They've fed AI the tax code of the US, or the UK, or maybe every industrialized country, and tasked the system with looking for money-saving strategies. How many tax loopholes will those AIs find? Ten? One hundred? One thousand? The Double Dutch Irish Sandwich is a tax loophole that involves multiple different tax jurisdictions. Can AIs find loopholes even more complex? We have no idea. Sure, the AIs will come up with a bunch of tricks that won't work, but that's where those attorneys and accountants come in - to verify, and then justify, the loopholes. And then to market them to their wealthy clients. As goes the tax code, so goes any other complex system of rules and strategies. These models could be tasked with finding loopholes in environmental rules, or food and safety rules - anywhere there are complex regulatory systems and powerful people who want to evade those rules. The results will be much worse than insecure computers. Tax loopholes result in less revenue collected by governments, and regulatory loopholes allow the powerful to skirt the rules, both of which have all sorts of social ramifications. And while software vendors can patch their systems in days, it generally takes years for a country to amend its tax code. And that process is political, with lobbyists pressuring legislators not to patch. Just look at the carried interest loophole, a US tax dodge that has been exploited for decades. Various administrations have tried to close the vulnerability, but legislators just can't seem to resist lobbyists long enough to patch it. AI technologies are poised to remake much of society. Just as the industrial revolution gave humans the ability to consume calories outside of their bodies at scale, the AI revolution will give humans the ability to perform cognitive tasks outside of their bodies at scale. Our systems aren't designed for that; they're designed for more human paces of cognition. We're seeing it right now in the deluge of software vulnerabilities that these models are finding and exploiting. And we will soon see it in a deluge of vulnerabilities in all sorts of other systems of rules. Adapting to this new reality will be hard, but we don't have any choice.

OpenAI makes its rival to Anthropic's Mythos more widely available to cyber defenders

Why it matters: Recent security testing suggests that GPT-5.5 model is nearly as good at finding and exploiting software bugs as Anthropic's Mythos Preview. The capabilities of the new models have sparked an urgent debate in Silicon Valley and the White House about how to keep them out of the hands of bad actors. Driving the news: OpenAI is opening a limited preview of GPT-5.5-Cyber to vetted cyber defenders who are "responsible for securing critical infrastructure," per a press release. * A source familiar with GPT-5.5-Cyber's abilities told Axios that they were roughly on par with Mythos. One major recent test put Mythos narrowly ahead. * Cyber defenders who are vetted and approved for the highest tier of OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program will receive a version of GPT-5.5 that has fewer guardrails than the publicly available model. They will be able to use it to hunt for bugs, study malware and reverse engineer attacks. * Defenders will still be blocked from certain tasks like credential theft and writing malware, but the new abilities are designed to help them automate popular cybersecurity workflows, OpenAI noted in the press release. Zoom in: The new GPT-5.5-Cyber model is specifically designed to help defenders write proofs of concept for the bugs they can find or run simulations to test their organization's security posture. * Meanwhile, OpenAI has also made another version of GPT-5.5 available to other members of its Trusted Access for Cyber program that can help with understanding unfamiliar code, mapping affected surfaces or reviewing patches for software flaws. The big picture: Advanced AI models are getting scary good at finding and exploiting flaws in technology, including everything from operating systems to web browsers. * The U.K. AI Security Institute said last week that GPT-5.5 was able to complete a 32-step simulated corporate cyberattack in 2 out of 10 test runs. Mythos did the same in 3 out of 10 runs. * Before Mythos, no AI model had ever successfully completed that test. Between the lines: OpenAI and Anthropic are pursuing two different approaches to rolling out their cyber-capable models as they both try to keep the technology out of the hands of malicious hackers and adversarial governments. * Anthropic has taken a more restrictive view, allowing approximately 40 organizations to access Mythos. Some of those companies are also part of the company's new Project Glasswing, where members are trading information about how they're testing the model. * OpenAI is taking a more open approach. It's releasing one version of its advanced models with stricter guardrails, while also creating a version with fewer safeguards for companies that apply for access. What to watch: The White House is actively discussing a slate of executive actions that could change how the federal government is involved in future model rollouts.

The AI Wars Are Having a Surprising Cybersecurity Benefit. Here's How

The AI company announced on Thursday that it is releasing a limited preview of a model called GPT-5.5-Cyber to vetted cybersecurity professionals -- in much the same way that Anthropic announced it had released a preview of Mythos to a select group in early April, and launched a public beta of Claude Security for Claude Enterprise customers later that month. GPT‑5.5‑Cyber has fewer restrictions than GPT-5.5, which has been nicknamed "Spud." "It is designed to make the cyber capabilities of GPT‑5.5 more useful for verified defenders working on defensive tasks, while continuing to restrict requests that could enable real-world harm," OpenAI detailed in a blog post.

EU says OpenAI offers to open access to cybersecurity model, Anthropic not there yet

The European Commission has expressed enthusiasm for OpenAI's generous offer to grant open access to its advanced cybersecurity capabilities, a move set to fortify security standards and enhance public safety across Europe. Conversely, rival entity Anthropic has remained silent on any similar initiatives. The European Commission on Monday welcomed an offer by U.S. artificial intelligence giant OpenAI to provide open access to its cybersecurity features, but said its ⁠rival Anthropic ⁠has not yet gone so far. While the Commission has received the offer from OpenAI, it has had four or five meetings with Anthropic, though no discussions on possible access to its AI models have been held so far, spokesperson Thomas Regnier said during a daily press briefing. "With one (OpenAI), ⁠you have a company proactively offering to give access to the company. With the other one (Anthropic), we have ⁠good exchanges though we're not at a stage where we can speculate on potential access or not," he said. Former British finance minister George Osborne, who heads the group's "OpenAI for Countries" initiative, has sent an explanatory letter to the Commission and member states. "Through the OpenAI EU Cyber Action Plan, we will work with European policymakers, institutions and businesses by democratizing access to the defensive tools that trusted actors can use to strengthen shared security, support ⁠public safety and reflect European priorities," he said in the letter, according to a statement from the company on Monday. The OpenAI letter came a month after the European Commission said the company's ChatGPT should be considered a large online search engine under the rules of the Digital Services Act, and be regulated as such.

OpenAI Shares Its Latest Cyber Model With EU, Anthropic Reportedly Holds Back Mythos - Alphabet (NASDAQ:G

OpenAI has agreed to provide the European Union (EU) with access to its latest cyber model. However, Anthropic reportedly remains reluctant to release its Mythos to the EU. The Sam Altman-led company has decided to grant access to its GPT-5.5-Cyber model to EU partners, including businesses, governments, and EU institutions, reported CNBC on Monday. The model is currently in a limited preview phase for vetted cybersecurity teams, it said. Head of OpenAI for Countries, George Osborne, emphasized the need for collaboration in cybersecurity, saying advanced AI-powered cyber defense tools should be accessible to Europe's broader community of defenders, not just a select few. EU Commission Spokesperson Thomas Regnier appreciated OpenAI's transparency and confirmed further discussions around access to the model this week. "This will allow us to follow deployment of the model very closely, and address security concerns," he told CNBC. Anthropic, however, has not yet agreed to provide the EU with access to its Mythos model, which was launched a month ago and has raised concerns about potential cyberattacks on critical software, the report said. Regnier confirmed ongoing discussions with Anthropic, but noted they are at a "different stage" than those with OpenAI. He revealed that the Commission had held "four or five" meetings with Anthropic, but the discussions were "not yet at the same stage as the solution we have on the table from OpenAI." Anthropic did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comment. AI, Cloud Rules Face Sovereignty PushOpenAI Expands Cybersecurity Push The launch comes after Anthropic introduced Claude Mythos Preview, a model designed to detect and fix software vulnerabilities. OpenAI said it developed the model with safeguards and controlled access informed by consultations with cybersecurity and national security experts. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

OpenAI Launches Cybersecurity Preview To Challenge Anthropic's Mythos

OpenAI introduced a preview of GPT-5.5-Cyber on Thursday to a limited number of cybersecurity defenders, as part of its "broader work to build the core infrastructure for AI." For more sensitive workflows, OpenAI said it is offering GPT‑5.5‑Cyber in a limited preview with stronger verification and account-level controls. The preview is not meant to significantly increase cybersecurity capability beyond GPT-5.5, however it is trained to be more permissive for security-related tasks. This news comes after the launch of Anthropic's unreleased AI model called Claude Mythos Preview, which works to hunt and fix software flaws in an effort to "reshape" cybersecurity, Anthropic stated. "We are focused on providing proportional safeguards and access to empower cyber defenders to protect society, and our approach has been informed by conversations with cybersecurity and national security leaders across federal and state government and major commercial entities," OpenAI said in its announcement. "More specialized access becomes relevant only when authorized workflows still run into refusals. This occurs with higher risk workflows such as red teaming and penetration testing, where defenders may need to go beyond analysis and validate exploitability in a controlled environment. GPT‑5.5‑Cyber is designed to facilitate these more specialized dual-use workflows," the company stated. This launch is part of OpenAI's Trusted Access for Cyber program. The pilot program was announced in February in an effort to "enhance baseline safeguards for all users while piloting trusted access for defensive acceleration." Beginning June 1, individuals using the most permissive cyber models through the program will need to enable Advanced Account Security, the company added. This move comes as AI capabilities surrounding cybersecurity have reached a "tipping point." Government officials have recently raised concerns that artificial intelligence tools could be misused to disrupt critical infrastructure such as financial systems or power grids. Both OpenAI and Anthropic have engaged with government agencies (including defense and public-sector organizations) to deploy or evaluate AI systems in controlled settings, often with a focus on security, safety, and sensitive use cases. Photo Courtesy: Camilo Concha on Shutterstock.com This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

OpenAI gives European companies access to its latest models to bolster resilience

LONDON, May 12 (Reuters) - U.S. artificial intelligence giant OpenAI said it was granting access to its latest models including GPT-5.5-Cyber to Deutsche Telekom, BBVA and dozens more European companies to help bolster their resilience to vulnerabilities in their systems. OpenAI's "Trusted Access for Cyber" programme gives verified companies in vital sectors such as financial services, telecoms, energy and public services access to its models, including precise safeguards for defensive work. OpenAI's MD for EMEA, Emmanuel Marill, said there was an important balance to be struck between access, usefulness and safety as AI became more capable. "We need to block dangerous activity, while making sure trusted defenders have tools that are genuinely useful in protecting systems, finding vulnerabilities and responding to threats quickly," he said on Tuesday. The release of Mythos by OpenAI's rival Anthropic last month significantly upped the risks posed to banks and other companies from new frontier AI models. Their capabilities to code at a high level have given them an unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity risks and devise ways to exploit them, raising fears they could be used to destabilise banks and other companies. OpenAI has offered the European Commission open access to cybersecurity features, Brussels said on Monday, but it added that Anthropic had not been as forthcoming. Former British finance minister George Osborne, who heads the company's "OpenAI for Countries" initiative, on Monday sent an explanatory letter to the Commission, saying that democratizing access to defensive tools could strengthen shared security, support public safety and reflect European priorities. OpenAI also said on Monday it was setting up a new company with more than $4 billion in initial investment to help organisations build and deploy AI systems, and would acquire AI consulting firm Tomoro to quickly scale up the unit. (Reporting by Paul Sandle. Editing by Mark Potter)