GPT-5.5 matches heavily hyped Mythos Preview in new cybersecurity tests
Ever wonder if hype around AI's cybersecurity skills is justified? Well, recent tests suggest maybe not. Kyle Orland reports that GPT-5.5, launched by OpenAI last week, matches the performance of Anthropic's Mythos Preview, which had sparked major buzz last month. According to the UK's AI Security Institute, both models scored similarly on tough cybersecurity challenges — like reverse engineering and cryptography — passing around 70% on expert-level tasks. Now, here's where it gets interesting: in one particularly tricky test involving decoding Rust binaries, GPT-5.5 cracked it in just over 10 minutes, costing less than two dollars in API calls. Orland notes that GPT-5.5 also outperformed Mythos Preview on a simulated data attack, succeeding in 3 out of 10 tries, something no model had managed before. But even with those wins, GPT-5.5 still struggles with the toughest power-plant disruption scenarios, a challenge that’s stumped all AI so far. So, the question isn’t just about hype — it's about whether these models are truly ready for real-world cybersecurity threats.