TOKYO, Aug 10 (Bernama-Kyodo) — Japan is considering utilising cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) systems under its preemptive cyber defence policy in the face of the risk of attacks by advanced models such as United States (US) startup Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, Kyodo News reported.
Amid growing concerns over cyberattacks by AI models with high capability to detect security vulnerabilities, it is “inevitable” that Japan will use sophisticated AI technology, said National Cyber Director Yoichi Iida.
“It would be no surprise if the time between vulnerability discovery and exploitation were shortened to a fraction of a hundredth or a thousandth of what it used to be,” Iida said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.
The Claude Mythos model is seen as highly capable of finding security vulnerabilities, and Anthropic initially limited access to it to IT companies such as Google LLC and certain financial institutions after its April unveiling, due to concerns it could be misused for cyberattacks.
Iida’s remarks came after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s Cabinet decided in March to enable the government to take, from Oct 1, “active cyber defence” measures to eliminate in advance the possibility of serious cyberattacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure, economic activity and people’s livelihoods.
The government needs to consider “how to advance automation” in its cyber defence operations while ensuring human involvement in the final decision-making process, Iida said. He stopped short of clarifying possible concrete steps.
Iida also said Japan should not rely on any one particular AI model, citing the example of the US government’s export control directive to suspend access to Mythos-class models in June.
The suspension affected security vulnerability scanning operations for key government systems, Iida said.
If cutting-edge AI models were exploited in nation-sponsored cyberattacks, such offensives could become “far more sophisticated,” and their intensity is expected to increase, Iida added.
— BERNAMA-KYODO