When an AI model can autonomously find a bug that humans missed for 27 years, banks tend to pay attention. BNP Paribas, Europe’s largest bank by assets, is now working with French AI company Mistral AI to prepare for a new generation of cybersecurity threats driven by increasingly capable AI systems.
The partnership is a direct response to the alarming capabilities demonstrated by Anthropic’s Mythos model, which achieved a 72% exploit success rate during testing and managed to identify a flaw in OpenBSD that had gone undetected for over 27 years.
From experimentation to enterprise defense
This isn’t a cold-call partnership. BNP Paribas and Mistral AI have been working together since September 2023, when the bank started experimenting with Mistral’s models in its Global Markets division. That initial pilot expanded into a bank-wide engagement, culminating in a multi-year agreement signed in July 2024 that gave BNP Paribas access to all of Mistral’s models.
The latest phase of the collaboration, announced on May 26, shifts the focus squarely to cybersecurity. BNP Paribas CIO Marc Camus emphasized during a press conference that the effort isn’t narrowly focused on defending against Mythos alone. The goal is to anticipate and counter threats from any advanced AI model that could be weaponized against financial infrastructure.
