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Anthropic risks shooting itself in the foot with Mythos
The AI firm might have bitten off more code than it can chew
Published Tue, Apr 28, 2026 · 07:00 AM
ANTHROPIC might have drawn from the Greeks in naming its latest artificial intelligence model “Mythos”, but the AI company should take a page from Russian storytelling instead.
Specifically, it should heed the “gun principle” established by the playwright Anton Chekhov, who wrote: “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off. It’s wrong to make promises you don’t mean to keep.”
Thanks to Chekhov, the average theatregoer expects that if a firearm appears in Act 1, it is fired by Act 2.