Sam Altman criticises Anthropic's Mythos rollout, calls out 'fear-driven' pitch

Sam Altman criticizes Anthropic Mythos cyber AI as fear based marketing, highlighting growing rivalry and debate over AI risk, access, and enterprise adoption.

OpenAI and Anthropic continue to exchange public criticism, with OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman commenting on a rival product during a recent podcast appearance, according to a report by TechCrunch.

Altman referred to Anthropic's recently announced cybersecurity-focused AI model, Mythos, and stated that the company was using fear-based messaging to position the product as more powerful than it may be in reality.

Anthropic unveiled Mythos earlier this month and has released it to a limited group of enterprise customers. The company has stated that the model is too powerful for wider public release due to concerns that it could be misused by cybercriminals, a position that has drawn criticism from some quarters as being overstated.

Speaking on the podcast Core Memory, Sam Altman stated that such messaging could serve to keep advanced AI systems restricted to a smaller and more exclusive group. He stated that there have long been individuals and organisations that favour limiting access to AI technologies and that such approaches can be justified in multiple ways.

He further stated that positioning a product as highly dangerous while simultaneously offering controlled access can be an effective marketing strategy, drawing a comparison to selling protection against a threat that is being emphasised.

The exchange comes amid a broader trend within the AI industry, where strong rhetoric around the potential risks of artificial intelligence is frequently used alongside product promotion. Observers have noted that warnings about extreme AI risks have not only come from critics of the technology but also from companies actively developing and commercialising such systems, including leaders within the sector.

The latest remarks highlight the growing competition and contrasting narratives among major AI firms as they seek to shape both public perception and enterprise adoption of emerging technologies.