US Government Orders AI Firm Anthropic to Suspend Foreign National Access to Advanced Models

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic says it has been ordered by the US government to suspend access for all foreign nationals to some of its advanced AI models, citing national security concerns.

This comes just a day after a coalition of US state attorneys opened a sweeping investigation into OpenAI, a source familiar with the matter said.

The restrictions to Anthropic apply to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 artificial intelligence models.

The company said it received the export control directive on Friday local time from the government, which gave no specific details of its national security concern.

In a statement, Anthropic said it understands the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking," Fable 5.

"The net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance," Anthropic said.

"Access to all other Anthropic models will not be affected."

Anthropic added that it believed there was a "misunderstanding" and that it was working to restore access to the models as soon as possible.

OpenAI under investigation

The ChatGPT maker was served with a subpoena on Friday local time seeking documents related to a wide range of its activities and the impact on users, including advertising, user engagement and retention, and the handling of consumer and health data, the source said.

The subpoena, sent by New York's attorney general, also seeks information on activities related to minors and seniors, deep learning models and internal company policies, the source added.

The probe represents the latest legal challenge for IPO-bound OpenAI, which is being sued by Florida for allegedly misrepresenting the safety of its ChatGPT platform.

The source declined to be identified while discussing the investigation, which has not been publicly announced.

An OpenAI spokesperson said: "AI is a new and powerful technology, and we work every day to safely bring its benefits to people in a responsible way.

"We take the concerns raised by state attorneys general seriously and intend to engage constructively with their offices."

The Florida lawsuit, the first by a US state, claims the platform has harmed children by providing information to school shooters, offering guidance on self-harm and addicting young users.

A Canadian mother also sued OpenAI and Chief Executive Sam Altman in US court on Thursday, alleging ChatGPT encouraged her daughter to kill herself.

OpenAI said last week it had confidentially filed for a US IPO that a source said could come as early as September and value the company at up to $US1 trillion ($1.4 trillion).