OpenAI gives European companies access to its latest models to bolster resilience

U.S. artificial intelligence giant OpenAI said it was granting access to its latest models including GPT-5.5-Cyber ​to Deutsche Telekom, BBVA and dozens more European companies to help ‌bolster their resilience to vulnerabilities in their systems.

Other companies added to the scheme included Spain’s Telefonica, Britain’s Sophos and German financial services firm Scalable Capital, Open AI said.

OpenAI’s “Trusted Access ​for Cyber” programme gives verified companies in vital sectors such as financial ​services, telecoms, energy and public services access to its models, including ⁠precise safeguards for defensive work.

OpenAI’s MD for EMEA, Emmanuel Marill, said there ​was an important balance to be struck between access, usefulness and safety as ​AI became more capable.

“We need to block dangerous activity, while making sure trusted defenders have tools that are genuinely useful in protecting systems, finding vulnerabilities and responding to threats quickly,” ​he said on Tuesday.

The release of Mythos by OpenAI’s rival Anthropic last month ​significantly upped the risks posed to banks and other companies from new frontier AI models.

Their ‌capabilities ⁠to code at a high level have given them an unprecedented ability to identify cybersecurity risks and devise ways to exploit them, raising fears they could be used to destabilise banks and other companies.

OpenAI has offered the European Commission ​open access to cybersecurity ​features, Brussels said on ⁠Monday, but a Commission spokesperson added that Anthropic had not been as forthcoming.

Former British finance minister George Osborne, who ​heads the company’s “OpenAI for Countries” initiative, on Monday sent an ​explanatory letter ⁠to the Commission, saying that democratizing access to defensive tools could strengthen shared security, support public safety and reflect European priorities.

OpenAI also said on Monday it was setting ⁠up ​a new company with more than $4 billion in ​initial investment to help organisations build and deploy AI systems, and would acquire AI consulting firm Tomoro ​to quickly scale up the unit.

Source : Reuters