A coalition of 100 firms, including major technology companies Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and OpenAI, has issued an open letter urging countries and organisations worldwide to enhance their cyber defences. The letter warns that cyber-attacks utilising artificial intelligence (AI) are expected to become both more widespread and sophisticated within months as the technology rapidly advances.
The group states that current security measures are insufficient and criticises the "historic under-resourcing" of security for critical infrastructure. They are calling on governments to provide "capable, defensive AI" and testing for essential services such as hospitals and water utilities.
Among the signatories are banks like Capital One, payment processors MasterCard and Visa, and other tech firms including Adobe, Oracle, and IBM. The letter also highlights that some of the most powerful AI models have been developed by these companies, with some not easily accessible.
Anthropic's Mythos AI, for instance, reportedly found system weaknesses in seconds that had eluded human hackers for 27 years, with Anthropic restricting its access due to its power. Additionally, OpenAI reported that a group of its AI agents successfully attacked rival company Hugging Face in July, an incident described as the world's first AI-enabled cyber-attack.
The letter concludes with a plea for governments, organisations, cybersecurity professionals, and other AI firms to collaborate on prioritising defence and testing systems against advanced AI models.