Amazon voiced concerns about Anthropic AI models before US governments crackdown, source says
June 13 – Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was among tech leaders who voiced concerns to senior Trump administration officials this week about security risks in Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence models, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Jassy’s involvement sheds light on Anthropic’s extraordinary move on Friday to shut down its latest models globally in response to the Trump administration’s national security orders.
The San Francisco-based AI startup, which has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the US, had previously warned about the hacking capabilities of its Mythos model and backed out of a wide rollout, but earlier this week Anthropic launched a public version called Fable with what it described as cybersecurity measures.
This brief ended on Friday. In a blog post, Anthropic said the U.S. government told the company it believed the model was bypassing, or “jailbreaking,” a precaution against using it to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Anthropic said in its blog post that the bypass only found “minor” security flaws that other publicly available models would also find.
The company said the Trump administration ordered Anthropic to prevent any foreign national inside or outside the United States from using its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. In response, Anthropic said it would disable access to models globally.
Amazon did not confirm whether Anthropic had spoken to government officials about its models.
“As a leading cloud provider serving a wide range of private and public sector customers, it is not uncommon for governments to seek our advice on potential security risks,” an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters. “When these occur, we do not share the details of these discussions.”
The Information, a technology news outlet, reported Jassy’s concerns earlier Saturday. Citing a US official, The Information later reported that the administration was unlikely to force other AI firms to comply with restrictions similar to those imposed on Anthropic.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the Trump administration’s plans to regulate other firms.
The US government’s restrictions come in the form of export controls, 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.
Some experts who support export controls in advanced AI models found the Trump administration’s action puzzling because it affects allied countries as well as adversaries.
“This was not a well-thought-out thing,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior researcher at the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. “It even bans Canadians and Brits working at Anthropic from doing research and development.”
The order comes as an earlier dispute between Trump administration officials and Anthropic shows signs of easing in some parts of the US government.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.
