US Orders Anthropic to Halt Advanced AI Models Globally Amid Security Concerns

Synopsis

The US government ordered AI firm Anthropic to halt its advanced AI models worldwide. This action followed concerns about potential misuse for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly raised security risks to Trump administration officials. Anthropic stated the government cited a method to bypass safeguards. The company complied with the national security order, disabling access globally.

Amazon CEO Andy ​Jassy was among tech leaders who raised concerns to senior Trump administration officials this week about security risks in Anthropic's most advanced AI models, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Jassy's involvement sheds light on the extraordinary move by Anthropic on Friday to shut down its latest models globally in response to ‌national security orders ⁠from President ⁠Donald Trump's administration. The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for a U.S. initial public offering, had previously warned about the hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and ​held it back from wide release, but earlier this week, Anthropic rolled out a public version, called Fable, with what it described as cybersecurity safeguards.

That ​brief release ended on Friday. In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government told the company it believes there is a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking," a safeguard against using the model to find cybersecurity holes.

The bypass found only "minor" security flaws that other publicly available ​models can also find, Anthropic said in its blog post. The Trump administration ordered Anthropic ⁠to block ‌any foreign nationals, whether inside or outside the U.S., from using both its latest models, Fable 5 and ​Mythos 5, the ​company said. In response, Anthropic said it would disable access to the models globally.

Amazon did not confirm whether ⁠it spoke to government officials about Anthropic's models.

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"As a leading cloud provider that ​serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it's not uncommon for governments to ​seek our counsel on potential security risks," an Amazon spokesperson said. "When they occur, we don't share the details of these discussions."

EXPORT CONTROLS

The Information, a technology news outlet, earlier on Saturday reported Jassy's concerns. The Information, citing a U.S. official, later reported that the administration was unlikely to force other AI firms to abide by restrictions similar to those placed on Anthropic.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Trump administration's plans for regulating other firms.

The U.S. government restrictions came in the form of an export control, Anthropic said in its blog post. ‌The U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Officials issued the export control "reluctantly" after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei "refused" to "fix the jail break or de-deploy the ​model," White House ​adviser David Sacks wrote in a social ⁠media post on Saturday.

"The Admin's hope now is that Anthropic remediates the safety issue, the export control is lifted, and Fable goes back into general release," wrote Sacks, co-chair of Trump's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and formerly the White House's AI ​czar.

Some experts who favor export controls on advanced AI models found the Trump administration's action puzzling because it affects allied nations as well as adversaries.

"This was not well thought-out," said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior fellow at the University of California's Institute for Global Conflict and Cooperation. "It even bans Canadians and Brits employed at Anthropic from doing research and development." The order came just as a previous dispute between Trump administration officials and Anthropic showed signs of easing across parts of the U.S. government.