Amid rising cybersecurity concerns around Anthropic’s Claude Mythos model, the Indian government is reportedly asking the AI company to host its AI models locally in the country. The government fears that foreign-hosted AI infrastructure could risk national security, data protection, compliance rules, and legal jurisdiction over sensitive information.

According to a Money Control report, Anthropic’s India team reportedly held virtual meetings with officials from the Finance Ministry, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). The discussion was reportedly around access to the Claude Mythos AI model, potential cybersecurity threats, and Anthropic’s overall AI security and safety capabilities.

Must read: BT explainer: Inside Claude Mythos, the AI is forcing a rethink of global cybersecurity

The report cited a government official saying, “After the Mythos claims surfaced, Anthropic’s India team was involved in discussions with government stakeholders. These were exploratory interactions to understand the maturity of the model, the scale of the threat being claimed and the safeguards required.”

The meeting comes amid growing concerns surrounding the AI model, and the government is not planning to strengthen its local control over powerful AI systems used in crucial sectors like banking, telecom, and other critical infrastructure. 

The report further stated that the cybersecurity concerns have now shifted to sovereign concerns. It also quoted unnamed sources who said, “The meetings were not about policy formulation. Initially, the government wanted to assess whether the claims reflected a genuine technological leap or were being overstated.”

Must read: US govt could review AI models before public release amid Mythos concerns

Another person said that any advanced AI models can only be safely used in sensitive areas like government operations or the financial sector if the systems are hosted within Indian borders or on a government-approved secure cloud platform.

The concerns have also triggered the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as the government has also asked telecom operators to assess the risks and assess how prepared they are to handle such threats.