US Government Orders Anthropic to Block Non-US Users from Latest AI Model
Quick Look
- AI company Anthropic has disabled access to its Fable and Mythos models for all non-US users following a US government order.
- The order cites concerns that built-in safeguards could be bypassed, a process known as "jailbreaking," though Anthropic disputes the necessity of such a broad recall.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
The U.S. government has ordered AI company Anthropic to block all non-U.S. users from accessing its latest AI models, Fable and Mythos, citing concerns over potential bypasses of built-in safeguards.
U.S. AI company Anthropic has disabled all access to its latest AI model, Fable, after the American government ordered it to suspend access for all non-U.S. users.
"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 in a statement Friday evening.
Fable 5 is a less powerful version of the company's Mythos model, which Anthropic initially withheld from a larger audience for fear that the model was too capable of exploiting software vulnerabilities.
The company claimed the U.S. government imposed export controls out of concerns that some of the models' built-in safeguards could be bypassed, a process known as "jailbreaking."
"To date, the government has only given us verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak," the company said. It added that it disagreed "that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model."
In early April, Anthropic announced it had granted a limited set of trusted tech and cyber firms access to Mythos Preview through the Glasswing project to help them boost cyber defenses.
The decision left many non-U.S. governments and entities, such as the EU institutions, scrambling to get access.
Fable 5, which was launched only this week, is described as a "Mythos-class model" that the company provided with safeguards to make it safe for general use.
"Without safeguards, Fable 5’s capabilities in areas like cybersecurity could be misused to cause serious damage," Anthropic said at launch.
Open Questions
- What specific 'verbal evidence' was provided by the government?
- Will Anthropic appeal the government's decision?
- What are the long-term implications for international AI collaboration?
