The United States artificial intelligence company Anthropic has expanded access to its highly restricted cybersecurity model, Mythos, to approximately 150 organizations across more than 15 countries, including India. This initiative, called Project Glasswing, aims to address what Anthropic describes as a looming cybersecurity crisis. India's inclusion is notable as the list is otherwise dominated by Washington's closest security partners and allies, with China conspicuously absent.
Mythos: A New Frontier in Cybersecurity
Anthropic claims that Mythos has reached a level of coding and vulnerability-discovery capability that surpasses almost all human security researchers. In testing, the model reportedly uncovered thousands of serious software vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers, helping partners identify and patch flaws before malicious actors can exploit them. Unlike consumer AI products released to millions of users, Mythos remains gated because the same capability that can find security weaknesses can also potentially be used to exploit them. British and American security researchers have warned that frontier AI systems are approaching the point where they could significantly accelerate sophisticated cyberattacks.
Access to Mythos is limited largely to governments, critical infrastructure operators, major technology companies, financial institutions, and cybersecurity agencies. Participants are expected not merely to use Mythos but to help test it, identify risks, and improve defenses.
Strategic Significance for India
For India, the invitation carries strategic significance. New Delhi is not a treaty ally of Washington, yet it is the only major non-allied power included in the current expansion. Other countries that have access to Mythos include France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
The decision to include India likely reflects a combination of geopolitical and commercial realities. First, India has become one of the world's largest pools of software talent and one of the fastest-growing markets for AI adoption. Second, India's digital infrastructure, from banking and payments to telecom and public digital platforms, has become so extensive that vulnerabilities discovered in Indian systems can provide valuable insights into securing software globally.
Mixed Reactions
This has fueled a more cynical interpretation among some technology observers, one of whom posted on X: "Anthropic is not doing India a favor by inviting it to lunch; India is the lunch." The argument is that India's enormous software ecosystem offers a uniquely rich environment for stress-testing frontier cybersecurity AI. By allowing Indian institutions into Project Glasswing, Anthropic gains access to a vast landscape of real-world code, infrastructure, and security challenges. Others believe though that the relationship will be mutually beneficial.
China's Exclusion
China's exclusion is less mysterious. Project Glasswing is fundamentally a security initiative, and Mythos is designed to discover software vulnerabilities at scale, making it a technology with obvious national-security implications. At a time of intensifying US-China technological rivalry, U.S. lawmakers like Senator Chris Coons ensured there was no chance Washington would allow such capabilities to Chinese institutions.
India's Advantage Inside Anthropic
India also enjoys another advantage inside Anthropic itself. The company has a significant Indian presence in its leadership and engineering ranks, including Chief Technology Officer Rahul Patil, formerly CTO of Stripe. Patil is among a growing number of Indian-origin executives helping shape the next generation of frontier AI infrastructure. Anthropic has also opened a global office in Bengaluru, only the second after Tokyo, tapping local engineering talent to build what it describes as "sovereign" and localized AI infrastructure. Last October, CEO Dario Amodei met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss deploying AI across education, healthcare, and agriculture, while noting that usage of Claude Code in India had risen five-fold in recent months.
Potential Benefits for Indian Organizations
For Indian banks and critical infrastructure operators, the development could ultimately be positive. If Mythos can identify vulnerabilities before hostile actors do, Indian organizations such as CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) and firms like TCS and Infosys may gain a rare defensive head start in a world where AI is rapidly becoming both the locksmith and lockpick of cyberspace.
