China is trying to close the gap between the US’s AI capabilities and the East Asian countries’. At present the US may be ahead but China doesn’t want to be left behind. In a bid to prevent the scenario of China matching or even overtaking America’s presently unmatched cyber-capabilities the US has imposed a ban since 2022 on exporting advanced AI chips to the East Asian nation. As per China’s Zhipu AI, the Chinese company has created a new AI model that matches Anthropic’s Mythos in terms of cybersecurity capabilities. For your knowledge, as per The Wall Street Journal, Zhipu AI currently lags advanced American AI models from Anthropic as well as OpenAI in several other areas.

Absence of Government Restrictions on AI Companies by China

China’s 360 Security Technology said they have developed a powerful AI model which the company calls as ‘China’s answer to Mythos’. Chinese companies are able to achieve state-of-the-art offensive cyber capabilities partly because they don’t have similar restrictions placed on them that the US government is putting on American AI companies.

The Argument to Catch up with American Frontier AI Models

CEO Zhou Hongyi announced the new model at the 14th Beijing Cybersecurity Conference. As per Zhou, Mythos is like a ‘cyber nuclear weapon’. He further stated that the US now holds a tool to detect flaws in software employed by other countries. In his opinion, it puts nations other than the US at risk as the rest of the world don’t have similar capabilities. Further as per Zhou, China should have similar capabilities for the purpose of deterrence. He stated  “Mythos follows a typical large-scale model approach: the strongest model, the strongest computing power, and the strongest chips – a strategy of sheer brute force,”.

Two Chinese Frontier AI Tools

360 Security Technology has distilled its two decades of rich experience fighting against cyber-threats as well as large malware library into security models as well as agents. This is referred to as a ‘multi-agent swarm’ approach. The CEO of the Chinese cybersecurity company introduced two AI security tools at the conference.  One AI tool called ‘Tulongfeng’ automatically detects software vulnerabilities. The other AI tool termed ‘Yitianzhen’, automates cyber defence as well as incident response.

Massive Attempt to Steal American Technology

As per Anthropic, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba had attempted to steal technology from Claude AI models on a massive scale. The US AI giant stated that over 28.8 million interactions with Claude were carried out employing around as many as 25,000 fraudulent accounts. As per the former, the objective was to quicken the time to develop frontier and state-of-the-art AI models by China. Presently, there are growing US-China conflicts over frontier AI technology.

A Final Note

If the US government doesn’t allow American AI companies to test and prepare frontier AI models to prevent misuse, the world could well be threatened by similar capabilities by malicious entities with the absence of guardrails.

FAQs

FAQ 1: What is China’s latest claim regarding AI cybersecurity capabilities?

Answer: Chinese AI company Zhipu AI claims it has developed a new AI model with cybersecurity capabilities comparable to Anthropic’s Mythos. However, according to reports cited from The Wall Street Journal, Zhipu AI still trails leading American AI models such as Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s in several other areas.

FAQ 2: Why has the United States restricted AI technology exports to China?

Answer: Since 2022, the US has restricted the export of advanced AI chips to China to slow the country’s progress in developing frontier AI technologies and prevent it from matching or surpassing American capabilities, particularly in cybersecurity and other strategic domains.

FAQ 3: What are the two AI cybersecurity tools introduced by 360 Security Technology?

Answer: 360 Security Technology introduced two AI-powered cybersecurity tools:

• Tulongfeng, which automatically detects software vulnerabilities.
• Yitianzhen, which automates cyber defense and incident response.
  The company says these tools are based on a “multi-agent swarm” approach built using its extensive cybersecurity experience.

FAQ 4: Why does 360 Security Technology believe China should develop AI capabilities similar to Mythos?

Answer: CEO Zhou Hongyi argues that advanced AI systems like Mythos give the United States a significant cybersecurity advantage by enabling rapid discovery of software vulnerabilities. He believes China should develop comparable capabilities as a deterrent to reduce strategic imbalance and strengthen its national cyber defense.

FAQ 5: What allegations has Anthropic made regarding Chinese efforts to obtain AI technology?

Answer: Anthropic alleged that fraudulent activity involving approximately 25,000 fake accounts generated around 28.8 million interactions with its Claude AI models. According to the company, the activity was intended to accelerate the development of advanced AI models in China, highlighting the growing technological rivalry between the United States and China.

SOURCES:-

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-new-ai-cybersecurity-tool-on-par-with-anthropics-mythos-11698619

https://www.livemint.com/ai/artificial-intelligence/chinese-startup-claims-it-can-match-mythos-level-performance-with-new-ai-model-11782697542971.html

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chinese-ai-anthropic-mythos-cybersecurity-574b02c2

https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/06/26/chinese-cybersecurity-company-claims-its-built-a-better-than-mythos-bug-finder/5262642

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/chinas-360-says-it-has-developed-tools-match-anthropics-mythos-2026-06-24/

https://enterpriseai.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/china-unveils-ai-cybersecurity-tools-amid-anthropics-accusations-against-alibaba/131991122