By Fabiana Negrin Ochoa and Kimberley Kao

Advances in artificial-intelligence can strengthen markets' defense against cyber threats but the technology now has the capacity to cause a macro-financial shock too, the IMF warns.

The International Monetary Fund's analysis suggests that extreme losses caused by a cyber incident could trigger funding strains, raise solvency concerns and disrupt broader markets.

That adds to the chorus of concerns raised by authorities in the U.S., EU and elsewhere about the dangers of AI tools capable of carrying out cyberattacks.

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance expressed concerns about the AI cyber threat on a call with the heads of the biggest tech firms. Senior security officials from more than a dozen states have also expressed similar worries to AI companies.

Australian monetary authorities have said they are keeping a close eye on AI threats, while officials in Japan plan to establish a framework to defend against cyber risks.

The IMF said that the recent release of Anthropic's Claude Mythos model underscores how fast risks are rising.

"Mythos could find and exploit vulnerabilities in every major operating system and web browser--even when used by non-experts," it said, foreshadowing how AI-driven cyber risks could destabilize the financial system if not managed carefully.

Such powerful models give attackers the advantage over defenders because it is faster to find weak spots than it is to patch and fix them, the fund said.

"The recent launch of Claude Mythos has created elevated risks around cybersecurity initiatives," Wedbush analysts said in a recent note.

In a financial system built on common software and shared service providers, AI-assisted attacks can propagate across sectors like energy, telecommunications and public services that rely on the same infrastructure, the IMF said.

It called for existing cybersecurity measures to be sharpened to adapt to the new reality of faster, automated, and increasingly sophisticated attacks.

For now, there are mitigating factors like the fact that advanced AI cyber capabilities are not yet widely available.

But these buffers are likely to erode quickly as model training expands, and temporary containment is unlikely to be a worthy substitute for durable defenses, the IMF said.

Write to Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com and Kimberley Kao at kimberley.kao@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2026 01:48 ET (05:48 GMT)

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