Claude Mythos: is this a real risk or the AI industry’s latest fear campaign?

Anthropic’s unreleased model, Claude Mythos, is being talked about in the headlines as the next genuinely dangerous leap in AI - powerful enough, the company says, that it can’t be safely released to the public. But we at The Interface think we should take this self created panic with big serving of caution. The AI industry has learned that “too dangerous” can be a safety claim but also a major a publicity strategy: warn loudly, drip‑feed details, then proceed anyway. Until we know more about what Mythos can actually do, and how those claims are being independently verified, aren't we just in familiar territory: another episode of a self-publicising sector acting like the boy who cried wolf?

Also this week: we take on one of the most repeated bits of modern wellbeing advice, the idea that your phone’s blue light is wrecking your sleep. The evidence is messier than the panic, and the bigger culprit may be the lighting habits of modern life, and what we’re doing on our phones, rather than the colour of the glow itself. And, Amazon is ending support for older Kindle models, a move that leaves some owners unable to download new books and raises awkward questions about built in obsolescence and what “ownership” means when your device still works but the platform decides it’s done.

The Interface is your weekly guide to the tech rewiring your week and our world. Hosted by journalists Thomas Germain, Karen Hao, and Nicky Woolf, each episode unpacks, week by week, how technology is shaping all our futures. No guests. No jargon. Just three sharp voices debating the stories that matter — whether they shook a government, broke the internet, or quietly tipped the balance of power.

New episodes every Thursday on BBC Sounds in the UK. Outside the UK, find us on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts, or watch the video version on YouTube (search “The Interface podcast”).

To get in touch with the team: theinterface@bbc.com

The Interface is a BBC Studios production. Producer: Natalia Rodriguez Ford Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Is the new AI model really too dangerous to release?