Key facts
- The U.S. government ordered Anthropic to shut down its Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 AI models.
- Anthropic has complied with the directive, disabling the models worldwide.
- National security concerns and export control were cited as reasons for the shutdown.
- Anthropic stated the alleged vulnerabilities were narrow and already present in other AI models.
- Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly raised concerns about the models' security risks to Trump administration officials.
The U.S. government has ordered AI company Anthropic to disable two of its most powerful AI models, Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5, citing national security concerns and export control. Anthropic announced on Friday that it has complied with the directive, disabling both models 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, according to a person familiar with the matter. 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. Earlier this week, Anthropic rolled out a public version, called Fable, with cybersecurity safeguards, but that release ended on Friday.
In a blog post, Anthropic stated the U.S. government believes there is a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking," a safeguard against using the model to find cybersecurity holes. The company said the bypass found only "minor" security flaws that other publicly available models can also find. The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to block any foreign nationals from using both models. Amazon did not confirm discussions with government officials but stated it is not uncommon for governments to seek their counsel on potential security risks.
White House adviser David Sacks wrote that the administration issued the export control "reluctantly" after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei "refused" to "fix the jail break or de-deploy the model." Sacks expressed hope that Anthropic would remediate the safety issue and Fable would return to general release. 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, with one expert calling it "not well thought-out."