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Anthropic drops ASL, expands Glasswing partners

3 min read
15:17UTC

Anthropic's 244-page Alignment Risk Update for Claude Mythos Preview abandoned the AI Safety Level capability threshold framework for autonomy-focused threat models, and added Broadcom, CrowdStrike, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks and Cisco to the Glasswing partner list.

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Key takeaway

Anthropic replaced capability thresholds with autonomy-focused risk measurement, forcing Glasswing partners to rebuild their internal frameworks during live deployment.

Anthropic published a 244-page Alignment Risk Update for Claude Mythos Preview on 7 April 2026, formally abandoning its AI Safety Level (ASL) capability-threshold framework in favour of autonomy-focused threat models. The same update expanded Project Glasswing to add Broadcom, CrowdStrike, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks and Cisco alongside the original twelve founding partners announced on 8 April . The Glasswing Programme is backed by $100 million in model usage credits, distributing restricted Mythos access to selected partner organisations under coordinated-disclosure terms.

The ASL framework classified risk by capability thresholds: a model crossed a line when it demonstrated a specified skill, and escalating mitigations followed. Its autonomy-focused replacement measures risk by sustained multi-step execution, aligning with the attack-chaining dimension AISI separately confirmed. All Glasswing partners therefore have to rewrite the internal risk frameworks they were running under ASL, mid-deployment, during live coordinated disclosure.

The update discloses that over 99% of the vulnerabilities Mythos discovered during its vulnerability research programme remain unpatched, with coordinated disclosure still in progress. For the Glasswing partners, that means the security posture of the operating systems and browsers their staff use daily is currently weaker than it was before Mythos began running, because Mythos has a list of undisclosed paths into software they all depend on. CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks, newly added as of 7 April, are among the security vendors most directly affected by that exposure.

The methodology shift also changes what frontier AI risk governance looks like. Capability thresholds produced discrete pass/fail tests that could be regulated; autonomy thresholds require ongoing observation of how a model behaves across time and tasks, which is closer to financial-market supervision than to product certification. The Bank of England's April directive to the FCA on agentic AI in payments, carried elsewhere in this update, proceeds from the same premise.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Anthropic published a 244-page document about the risks of its most advanced AI, Mythos, and at the same time changed how it assesses those risks; scrapping a system based on specific measurable capabilities in favour of a broader focus on the AI's ability to act autonomously. The document also revealed that over 99% of the security vulnerabilities Mythos discovered in real software are still unfixed. Anthropic also expanded the list of companies with access to Mythos to include chip maker Broadcom and security firm CrowdStrike, among others.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The 99%-unpatched vulnerability figure is a structural consequence of coordinated disclosure norms that were designed for vulnerabilities in known software products, not for an AI model capable of discovering novel vulnerability classes at scale.

Standard coordinated disclosure gives vendors 90 days to patch before public release. Mythos appears to have discovered vulnerabilities faster than the vendor-patch cycle can absorb; a structural mismatch between the speed of AI-driven discovery and the speed of human-driven remediation.

The Glasswing expansion to include Broadcom, CrowdStrike, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks and Cisco alongside the original twelve partners concentrates privileged access to a model with confirmed unpatched vulnerability knowledge inside exactly the firms whose products contain those vulnerabilities.

This is not necessarily imprudent (coordinated disclosure requires giving the affected party the information) but it means the security perimeter for the unpatched vulnerability set is now co-extensive with the Glasswing partner list.

Sources:Axios·Challenger, Gray & Christmas
Mentions:Anthropic →Claude Mythos Preview →Project Glasswing →AI Safety Level →Broadcom →CrowdStrike →Palo Alto Networks →Meta →Nvidia →Bank of England →UK AI Security Institute →Financial Conduct Authority →
First Reported In

Update #6 · Three federal surveys, one 34-to-1 gap

Axios· 16 Apr 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Anthropic withholds Mythos from public release
Anthropic's 7 April system card and Glasswing expansion directly extended the Glasswing programme launched on 8 April with the original twelve partners.
Occurred 8 Apr 2026
Read story →
This Event
Anthropic drops ASL, expands Glasswing partners
A methodology shift that forces all Glasswing partners to rebuild their internal risk frameworks mid-deployment, while over 99% of Mythos-discovered vulnerabilities remain unpatched during coordinated disclosure.
Different Perspectives
UK financial regulators (BoE FPC / FCA)
UK financial regulators (BoE FPC / FCA)
The Bank of England's April FPC directive on agentic AI in payments was scoped around one frontier model; AISI confirmed a second model cleared the same 32-step threshold on 1 May. The supervisory architecture is one model behind the capability it was built to contain.
Indian IT sector workers (TCS, Infosys, Wipro)
Indian IT sector workers (TCS, Infosys, Wipro)
TCS posted its first annual revenue decline in the modern era, Infosys shed 8,400 workers in a quarter, and Wipro hit its zero-fresher target. Western Big Tech's AI automation is cannibalising the offshored-services model that employs roughly five million Indian IT workers.
Chinese workers (Hangzhou and Beijing plaintiffs)
Chinese workers (Hangzhou and Beijing plaintiffs)
Workers Zhou and Liu won cases that established a two-court doctrinal chain: AI adoption is the employer's deliberate strategy, placing the cost of displacement on the employer rather than the worker. Any Chinese employee facing AI-driven dismissal now has a citable legal route that American, British, and European counterparts do not.
Chinese government, courts, and domestic employers
Chinese government, courts, and domestic employers
The Hangzhou rulings were released on Workers' Day eve alongside the Ministry of Human Resources' recognition of 42 new AI occupations. Domestic firms now face mandatory retraining obligations; the Orgvue estimate of 8-14 months added to displacement timelines will feature in employer compliance briefings throughout 2026.
EU regulators and European Parliament
EU regulators and European Parliament
The second Digital Omnibus trilogue collapsed without agreement on 28 April; the third is scheduled for 13 May with the binding employer AI-literacy obligation still contested. Brussels is arguing over a non-binding encouragement clause while Beijing's courts have already bound employers.
US legislators (Warner, Rounds, Hawley, Sanders)
US legislators (Warner, Rounds, Hawley, Sanders)
Warner and Rounds produced the Economy of the Future Commission Act, the most concrete federal vehicle still moving, endorsed by the companies it would notionally regulate. The Sanders-AOC moratorium was killed by Democratic senators; the Hawley-Warner disclosure bill remains in committee with no floor date.