{"slug": "lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say", "title": "Lack of White House guidance has complicated agency Mythos adoption, people familiar say", "summary": "Senior federal technology officials are frustrated by a lack of White House guidance on adopting Anthropic's cyber-focused AI model Mythos, sources told Nextgov/FCW. Agency CIOs say the Office of the National Cyber Director has not briefed them on accessing or using the model to scan networks for vulnerabilities, while the private sector and intelligence community already have access. The lack of direction may leave target-rich agencies without a tool that could help defend against hackers.", "body_md": "# Lack of White House guidance has complicated agency Mythos adoption, people familiar say\n\n## Agency tech leaders say they don’t have clear direction from the White House on how to access and implement Anthropic’s cyber-focused AI model for their networks.\n\nSeveral senior federal technology officials responsible for agency cybersecurity and IT systems are frustrated by the lack of White House guidance on adopting Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, several sources told *Nextgov/FCW*.\n\nAgency chief information officers, or CIOs, manage swaths of digital infrastructure that supports government operations and are facing renewed pressure to better defend agency networks as officials assess how powerful AI systems could help hackers find and exploit vulnerabilities faster.\n\nAnthropic surgically rolled out Mythos access to select organizations in early April and recently [expanded](https://www.anthropic.com/news/expanding-project-glasswing) this effort — dubbed Project Glasswing — to partners in industry and other nations. The model has been going through a non-public distribution process on grounds that, in the wrong hands, it can significantly boost adversaries’ hacking capabilities.\n\nSelect parts of the U.S. government, such as the intelligence community, already have access. But many federal tech leaders have privately complained that the White House Office of the National Cyber Director hasn’t sufficiently briefed officials on plans for accessing, implementing and using the model to scan agency networks for vulnerabilities, according to five people familiar with the matter.\n\nThe people spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid about their knowledge of issues with the White House.\n\nThe agitation varies across agencies. Some CIOs have taken issue with a lack of direction in how they would use Mythos to scan for digital flaws, while others are more concerned with why they haven’t gained access to the model altogether.\n\nThere has been “tremendous frustration” with ONCD, the first person said. The ire stems, in part, from the fact that ONCD has largely prevented government tech leaders from making decisions about AI model use, while at the same time devoting much of its energy toward engagements with industry about AI policy.\n\n“There’s frustration watching the private sector utilize [these models]” while many agency CIOs “are arbitrarily blocked,” said the first person, adding that there’s been a “general prohibition” imposed on anyone who wants to engage with Anthropic further. They said there’s been near-complete silence from ONCD, despite many government agencies wanting to use Mythos to find unseen vulnerabilities and fix them to better defend their networks.\n\n“Nobody briefed us on [Mythos],” the second person told *Nextgov/FCW*. “I think the frustration stems from there being zero communication on the topic from ONCD.”\n\nAbsent guidance from ONCD or other executive branch agencies, [Anthropic held briefings for federal CIOs](https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/06/anthropic-held-cyberthreat-briefings-agency-cios-last-month/413919/) in early May to help them learn more about Mythos and how it would impact the broader cybersecurity landscape, *Nextgov/FCW* first reported.\n\nThe concerns are significant because they suggest that some of the federal government’s most target-rich agencies may lack clear direction or consistent access to a tool that could help them find and fix security flaws more quickly.\n\nThe federal enterprise is a [prime target](https://media.armis.com/rp-state-of-cyberwarfare-2026-us-federal-issue-en.pdf) for hackers, as adversaries have for years sought access to government [emails](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2023/09/microsoft-links-outlook-hack-engineers-corporate-account/390068/), [employee records](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2025/09/widespread-breach-let-hackers-steal-employee-data-fema-and-cbp/408456/) and other [sensitive data](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/04/suspected-chinese-breach-fbi-system-exposed-surveillance-targets-phone-numbers/412612/).\n\nSeveral top officials have made plans to [leave](https://www.nextgov.com/people/2026/05/top-white-house-cyber-policy-official-soon-depart/413811/) the White House cyber office in the last few weeks, including [its head of policy](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/09/white-house-ai-tom-lind-00955071).\n\nONCD did not respond to a request for comment.** **Anthropic declined to comment.\n\nThe third person, who has held discussions with at least three federal CIOs, said several are asking the private sector to help them learn more about Mythos and protect their networks from AI-supported cyberattacks.\n\n“Federal CIOs are taking a system-wide view and approach to their technology,” the third person told *Nextgov/FCW*. “While they are interested in frontier AI models’ capabilities to identify vulnerabilities in their networks, they know they can’t wait for access. So they’re taking steps now to coordinate with industry to accelerate their patching process, receive vulnerability disclosures as quickly as possible and operationalize a more automated remediation process.”\n\nThe fourth person cautioned that, while there are frustrations, CIOs’ concerns are not necessarily uniform across government. Pure access to powerful AI tools like Mythos is “not some magical silver bullet,” the person said, because agencies would still have to validate the vulnerabilities they flag and determine how to respond. Some CIO offices may be more eager for Mythos access than others, depending on their cybersecurity maturity and other factors, the person added.\n\nWhile ONCD may be perceived as an obstacle, the office has been lobbying for broader access to frontier model capabilities in some cases, though its approach “may not be uniform,” this fourth person said.\n\nAccess dynamics could change in the coming months. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is planning a binding operational directive that would push agencies to prioritize the most urgent risks to federal networks, a shift informed in part by AI-enabled cyber threats, the agency’s acting director [said Tuesday](https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/06/new-cisa-directive-would-reshape-how-agencies-prioritize-cyber-risk-official-says/414056/?oref=ng-homepage-river).\n\nThe administration’s approach to AI has shifted in recent months as officials confront an emerging class of cyber-focused models that can rapidly identify vulnerabilities across computer networks, becoming a major driver of discussions over how AI systems could reshape defensive and offensive cyber operations.\n\nPresident Donald Trump recently signed an AI security [executive order](https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/06/trump-signs-ai-executive-order-after-postponement-last-month/413912/) that encourages developers to submit powerful new models to a 30-day government review before public release. On Friday, he [signed](https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/06/trump-memo-pushes-national-security-agencies-move-faster-ai/414031/?oref=ng-home-top-story) a memorandum aimed at speeding up government use of advanced AI across the military and intelligence community.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say", "canonical_source": "https://www.nextgov.com/artificial-intelligence/2026/06/lack-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-familiar-say/414093/", "published_at": "2026-06-10 15:16:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-13 02:33:18.926883+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-safety", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-products"], "entities": ["White House", "Anthropic", "Mythos", "Office of the National Cyber Director", "Nextgov/FCW", "Project Glasswing"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/lack-of-white-house-guidance-has-complicated-agency-mythos-adoption-people-say.jsonld"}}