Central bank has artificial intelligence in its sights amid growing concerns over Anthropic rollout
The Bank of England says it will include risks posed by AI to the stability of the UK financial system in its future stress tests.
The central bank highlighted “likely long-term implications” of AI for the financial system’s security in a letter to MPs this week and said it was working with other central banks to stress test so-called “herding” behaviour and its impact on markets.
The letter arrived amid growing concern over Anthropic’s Mythos AI product and its ability to expose cybersecurity weaknesses. Anthropic says it will make that technology available to UK financial firms in the week ahead, and the Treasury Committee has criticised the BoE for its inaction on monitoring AI risks in the sector.
Governor Andrew Bailey said Anthropic’s product could be “a way to crack the whole cyber risk world open,” while other leaders including European Central Bank (ECB) president Christine Lagarde have highlighted the potential risks from the tool.
The company judged the product too dangerous for public release because its AI discovered hidden flaws in computer systems quicker than any human, and its development also stirred Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to summon Wall Street executives to a crisis meeting last week.
In an interview with the BBC, Canada’s finance minister François-Philippe Champagne described the threat as “serious enough to warrant the attention of all the finance ministers” and said it posed different economic risks to the ongoing war in Iran.
“The difference with the Strait of Hormuz is that we know where it is and we know how large it is,” Champagne said. “The issue that we’re facing with Anthropic is that it’s an unknown unknown.
“It requires a lot of attention so that we have safeguards, and we have processes in place to make sure that we ensure the resiliency of our financial system.”
The BoE’s decision to include AI risk in its stress testing was welcomed by Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Treasury Committee.
“I am pleased to see the Bank of England is grasping the nettle to some extent but I remain perplexed at the apparent inertia shown by the Treasury,” she said in a statement.
“The powers offered by the Critical Third Parties Regime are sitting unused while we remain vulnerable. I simply cannot understand why this is taking so long. We will continue to monitor this situation closely.”
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