{"text":[[{"start":5.2,"text":"Some in the AI community call it a “Chernobyl moment”: the fear that a catastrophic AI-related incident — from a hack that crashes the financial system to the release of a lethal bioweapon — could stop development of the technology in its tracks. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos is the first AI model that has made such risks seem real. Warning that Mythos’ exceptional ability to sniff out flaws in coding could, in the wrong hands, be used to bring down critical infrastructure, Anthropic has restricted its initial release to a group of chosen partners. Other risky models will follow, quickly."}],[{"start":40.85,"text":"AI as a whole requires light and agile regulation that does not stifle innovation in a world-changing technology. But with even Pope Leo XIV warning that AI must be “disarmed”, cutting-edge frontier models — those with “nation-state” capabilities — are one area in which setting up a vetting system is a matter of urgency. A formal mechanism is needed to understand just what these systems are capable of and decide how, or whether, to release them."}],[{"start":69.55,"text":"That makes it all the more unfortunate that the Trump administration last week postponed at short notice an executive order that would have set up a voluntary testing regime between US-based frontier AI companies and the government to study new models for 90 days before public release. President Donald Trump said he “didn’t like certain aspects of it” and wanted nothing to “get in the way” of America’s AI lead over China."}],[{"start":95,"text":"The Trump White House has generally scorned AI “safety” policies as unwarranted hindrances to US tech giants. But some officials were said to have been persuaded of the need to act on frontier models after Treasury secretary Scott Bessent met Wall Street bosses in April to discuss the risks posed to the financial system by Mythos. The resulting executive order was then reportedly delayed after lobbying from other officials and some tech titans."}],[{"start":123.85,"text":"The draft order was flawed, and narrow. It focused largely on cyber security rather than broader risks, relied on voluntary co-operation by US firms and limited pre-release testing to US agencies and “select trusted” partners chosen together with the government. Not mentioned in leaked drafts was a body set up by the Biden administration specifically to monitor AI risks and stress-test frontier models, but which Trump officials have rebranded and refocused on prioritising innovation. Perhaps inevitably, given that most (though not all) frontier model developers are American, the draft treated AI as in essence a proprietary US technology, and its security as a US affair. "}],[{"start":164.89999999999998,"text":"The order represented, however, an important first step. In the interests of international safety, a version that is not watered down from the original should be issued without delay. It is in the interests of the White House, too; a catastrophic incident could torpedo the industry on which the administration is pinning hopes for enhanced growth and continued superiority over China, and which has become a mainstay of the US stock market. "}],[{"start":189.7,"text":"A US-led framework may be, for now, the best the world can hope for. But the longer-term aspiration must be to develop an international vetting network. Though other countries lack AI companies the size of America’s, they do not lack AI knowhow. The UK’s AI Security Institute — the only non-US government agency given access to Mythos — has become the kind of repository of expertise that its US counterpart, in other circumstances, might have done. When it comes to frontier AI, the goal must be to put in place a monitoring system that prevents a Chernobyl moment from ever happening — not to be forced to do it in the aftermath."}],[{"start":233.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1779943252_7793.mp3"}