White House orders Anthropic to block foreign access after frantic 24-hour push

The White House ordered Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to block foreign access to the company’s latest models, Mythos and Fable, after a frantic 24-hour effort by senior officials to get the company to voluntarily pull a newly released model they believed posed security risks.

The decision followed multiple tense calls between Amodei and administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Cyber Director Sean Cairncross. The effort accelerated when Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raised concerns about the ability to bypass Fable’s guardrails two days after its public release.

By Friday morning, officials including Bessent, Cairncross, and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles met to coordinate the response; the administration initially said it had trouble reaching Amodei, a claim Anthropic’s spokesperson rejected, while a person close to the company said Amodei was contacted within about an hour and 15 minutes and other senior leaders were offered.

United States

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