U.S. Bars Anthropic AI Model From Foreign Users Over Security Concerns

The Commerce Department invoked national security export controls on Friday evening to bar Anthropic from distributing Fable 5 and its underlying Mythos 5 model to foreign nationals. The restriction covers users outside the United States as well as non-citizens inside the country, including some Anthropic employees. Anthropic responded by disabling both models for all users.

Background to the Decision Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy raised concerns with senior administration officials on Thursday after researchers used prompts to obtain information about cyberattacks that the model was supposed to withhold. The Wall Street Journal reported that the findings were shared with the government shortly before the export control decision.

Security researcher Katie Moussouris posted that the Amazon paper did not describe a jailbreak. White House AI adviser David Sacks posted that a trusted partner identified the bypass and that the administration asked Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei to fix the issue or withdraw the model.

Sacks said Amodei refused, leading to the export controls.

Anthropic said in a blog post that national security authorities had not identified specific concerns but understood the government believed a bypass method existed. The company added that the White House did not raise Chinese access during its conversations with Anthropic and that the firm prohibits access from within China.

" UK MP Al Carns noted that British hospitals, companies, and researchers had been using Fable 5 before access ended. This marks the first time the U.S. government has used export controls to halt access to a commercial AI model already in wide public use.

An administration official told Axios that other models on the market do not exceed the capability level reached by Mythos and would not face the same restrictions. Anthropic and the administration have been at odds for months. Earlier this year the company was designated a supply chain risk for Pentagon contractors after declining contract terms that would have allowed its models to be used for all lawful purposes.