The US government’s AI fight just got harder to square. The National Security Agency is reportedly using Anthropic‘s Mythos Preview even as senior Pentagon officials keep pushing to cut the company off over supply chain concerns. It shows how quickly real security needs can outrun official policy.
Since February, the Defense Department has been trying to block Anthropic and push vendors to do the same. Yet, according to an Axios report, the NSA appears to be moving ahead with one of the company’s most powerful models anyway, suggesting cybersecurity demand is carrying more weight than the feud now playing out inside government.
Why Mythos access is so limited
Mythos stands out because Anthropic appears to be keeping it on a short leash. Sources said the company limited access to around 40 organizations because of the model’s offensive cyber capabilities, and only some of those users have been publicly named. One source said the NSA was among the unnamed agencies with access.
That makes this look less like a normal chatbot deployment and more like a high stakes security tool. Sources said groups with access have mainly used Mythos to scan their own systems for exploitable vulnerabilities, which helps explain why national security officials would still want it despite the clash over trust.
Washington’s AI contradiction
The bigger issue is the contradiction now sitting in plain sight. One part of the government is treating Anthropic as a risk, while another is reportedly testing its top model. That makes the blacklist look less settled than advertised.
The fight appears to run deeper than procurement. Defense officials wanted Anthropic to make Claude available for all lawful purposes, while the company resisted uses tied to mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. Some officials took that as proof Anthropic could not be counted on when the military needed it, a claim the company disputes.
What happens after this
The next question is whether Mythos stays an NSA exception or becomes a broader opening across government. Sources said a recent meeting between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent focused on Mythos in government and the company’s broader security posture. Both sides described the meeting as productive.
If more agencies move in, this episode will look like a preview of how Washington handles powerful AI when internal policy fights collide with tools officials do not want to give up.