Amazon voiced concerns about Anthropic AI models before US crackdown

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.

"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.

-Reuters