Amazon warning prompted US crackdown on Anthropic AI models

The Trump administration’s decision to cut foreign access to Anthropic’s most powerful AI models followed calls from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Amazon researchers had found a way to prompt Anthropic’s Fable 5 model into returning information that could be used for cyberattacks, and Jassy contacted senior government officials.

That call, together with warnings from at least five other firms, triggered a White House effort to assess the threat and to contact Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who pushed back on the administration’s concerns and on requests to voluntarily pull the model. David Sacks, co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said the administration acted reluctantly.

“In reaction, the Admin issued the export control. The Admin did this reluctantly,” he said, adding that it had been “very surprised that Anthropic hasn’t wanted to cooperate with a reasonable safety request (ie fixing the jailbreak issue).” The US directive forced Anthropic to pull its new model from the public.

United States

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