BT has joined Anthropic's Project Glasswing, becoming the first UK company to confirm its membership of the cyber security initiative.
The move gives BT access to Claude Mythos Preview, an AI model from Anthropic, as the telecoms group looks to strengthen defences across its networks and customer services. Project Glasswing brings together operators of critical infrastructure to identify weaknesses in data and systems before attackers can exploit them.
BT said its participation reflects its position within the UK's critical national infrastructure and its role as a provider of managed security services. It now blocks four million cyber-attacks across its networks each day, illustrating the scale of the threat facing telecoms operators and the businesses that rely on them.
The agreement also places BT among a group of trusted organisations using advanced AI tools for cyber defence. Anthropic has framed the project around protecting systems that support services used by millions of people, with a focus on helping large infrastructure providers find and address vulnerabilities more quickly.
Cyber focus
The announcement comes as telecoms groups and security providers face growing pressure to respond to increasingly automated cyber threats. Businesses are also weighing how AI can be used on both sides of cyber security, as defenders adopt new tools while criminals experiment with the same technology to scale attacks and improve targeting.
BT has already been expanding its use of AI in cyber security. Its business division supplies AI-based security products to organisations of various sizes, including smaller companies, and it recently disclosed a collaboration with Accenture on AI-led cyber operations designed to respond to threats at machine speed.
For BT, the latest partnership is tied both to the resilience of the UK's communications infrastructure and to the security services it sells to customers. The group has argued that stronger networks and stronger cyber defences are becoming more closely linked as AI systems spread more widely across business and public services.
Allison Kirkby, BT's Chief Executive, used the occasion of a government summit on AI adoption to set out that view. Highlighting the relationship between digital infrastructure and AI deployment, she said secure and resilient connectivity would be essential if the technology is to be used at scale across the economy.
"AI only works at scale when it is underpinned by future-ready networks that are secure, resilient, safe," said Allison Kirkby, Chief Executive, BT.
Kirkby also set out BT's broader position on the development of domestic AI, saying it looked forward to "working with Government to support the further development and deployment of sovereign British AI capability, so that the UK can be an AI maker and not just a taker".
She added that BT aimed to act as an "enabler of responsible adoption and a responsible adopter ourselves" in AI.
UK context
BT's entry into Project Glasswing comes amid wider efforts by policymakers and industry leaders to encourage greater AI deployment across the UK economy while addressing security and safety risks. The government summit where the news was announced brought together senior ministers and officials alongside business leaders to discuss how AI can be adopted more broadly.
That policy backdrop matters for companies such as BT because telecoms networks sit at the centre of digital infrastructure used by consumers, businesses and public bodies. Efforts to harden those networks against cyber threats have implications beyond a single company, particularly as AI tools become more deeply embedded in operations and customer-facing systems.
Jon James, Chief Executive Officer, BT Business, linked the decision to the pace of change in the threat landscape and the role of service providers in helping companies respond. "AI is changing cyber security fast, and businesses need trusted partners who can help them stay one step ahead. By joining Project Glasswing, BT will strengthen its own cyber security capability to protect our networks, our customers and the wider UK," he said.