Federal Reserve’s Bowman warns banks on AI cybersecurity risks and benefits

Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman told banks on Thursday that artificial intelligence is simultaneously their best new weapon against cyberattacks and one of the most dangerous tools in the hands of bad actors. The message, delivered at a Financial Stability Oversight Council roundtable on May 1, landed with particular weight given the broader scramble across Wall Street to figure out what frontier AI models mean for the financial system. Bowman singled out Anthropic’s Mythos AI model as a case study in duality. The same frontier model that can detect vulnerabilities in banking infrastructure can, without adequate supervision, be repurposed by malicious entities to exploit those same systems. Wall Street’s AI anxiety goes all the way to the top Bowman’s remarks didn’t arrive in a vacuum. In April 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Fed Chair Jerome Powell convened a series of meetings with the CEOs of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs. The agenda: Mythos-related cybersecurity risks and how the largest financial institutions should prepare for a world where AI models grow more capable by the quarter. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s...