Anthropic's decision to disable its top AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, was a result of a US government order restricting access to Americans only. However, the White House and Amazon had concerns about the safety of the models, which led to a tense standoff.
According to a report by Politico, the White House spent much of Friday trying to persuade Anthropic to voluntarily withdraw its recently launched AI model, Fable. The effort ultimately failed, leading the administration to impose export controls that effectively disabled the company's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.
The concerns escalated when Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy flagged issues related to bypassing the model's guardrails. Senior administration officials, including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, met to discuss the model and determine the administration's response.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei participated in three calls with senior administration officials, arguing that the administration's concerns stemmed from a misunderstanding of the issue. However, the administration remained unconvinced and imposed export controls targeting the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.
The company was given a 90-minute ultimatum to take the models down, with no details on the actual threat. Anthropic later said the order prohibited use of the models by foreign nationals, effectively disabling the systems for all users.
