Trump reignites Anthropic feud after takedown of latest AI model

The feud between Anthropic and the Trump administration escalated again Saturday after the US government took the unusual step a day earlier of demanding that the artificial intelligence company cut off foreign access to its latest models, as top officials suggested the dispute was unlikely to resolve quickly. Late on Friday, Anthropic disclosed in a blog post that it had disabled access for all customers to its most advanced AI systems, known as Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after receiving a directive from the administration to suspend access to any foreign national. The move shocked former U.

S. officials and cybersecurity experts, many of whom questioned the validity of the action and noted that it diverged from the hands-off approach to policing the booming AI industry that President Donald Trump had endorsed earlier this month. Anthropic said the directive did not explain the national security concerns that prompted it.

But the company added that the government had said that it became aware of a method to “jailbreak,” or bypass, security restrictions on Fable 5 intended to limit a customer’s ability to abuse the product for hacking or other potential harms. Anthropic countered that the fears about the jailbreak method were overblown. The announcement inflamed tensions between the Trump administration and Anthropic, which earlier this month confidentially filed for an initial public offering following a funding round valuing it at nearly $1 trillion.

The two sides have sparred for months over how Anthropic’s AI systems could be used in military and intelligence settings, culminating with the Pentagon labelling the company a supply chain risk. On Saturday, top Trump administration officials and allies of Trump’s stepped up their attacks on Anthropic. “Three months ago, @DeptofWar kicked @AnthropicAI out of our building—forever,” Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on the social platform X.

“Every passing day proves why that was the right move.” David Sacks, a venture capitalist who until recently worked in the administration as an AI czar, accused Anthropic in a lengthy social media post Saturday of being reckless with the release of its latest model, dubbed Fable 5. Sacks, who said he had spoken to many people inside and outside the administration about the directive, said the administration had asked Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s CEO, to fix the jailbreak issue after a “highly credible trusted partner” of Anthropic’s and the government’s came forward with research.

“Dario refused,” Sacks said. A person briefed on Amodei’s conversations disputed the account, saying that Anthropic was happy to discuss the concerns. Sacks did not name the “trusted partner” he referred to in his post.

But multiple technology firms, including Amazon, spoke with the White House about the security issues, according to people familiar with the matter. Several of the people said a message from Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy, detailing security issues was the most influential, raising concerns about the capabilities of the new Anthropic model. But several of these officials said a separate document from Amazon explaining the security concerns with Anthropic’s model was misleading.

The concerning capabilities that the document highlighted with Anthropic’s model are also present in OpenAI’s top model, 5.5. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the exact nature of its discussions with the White House.

“It’s not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks,” the spokesperson said. “When they occur, we don’t share the details of these discussions.” Administration officials called Anthropic officials at 1:15 p.

m. Friday and gave them 90 minutes to pull their most advanced models down, citing an undefined national security concern, according to people briefed on the discussions. Anthropic officials asked for more information and worked to learn what the precise concern was, since the Commerce Department’s review and testing of Fable did not reveal significant concerns.

Then, at 5:21 p.m., Anthropic was notified that the Trump administration was imposing export controls that effectively forced the company to pull down its model, which consumers had just begun to have access to.

Discussions about resolving the dispute are continuing. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, spoke to Anthropic officials Friday, and was set to have another session with senior company officials Saturday evening, according to people briefed on the discussions and plans. Some experts said the Trump administration was either misunderstanding or deliberately misconstruing what transpired.

Katie Moussouris, the CEO of Luta Security, said on social media that she had seen the research paper that prompted the administration’s actions. “It’s not a jailbreak,” she said, but rather a defensive manoeuvre designed to limit the misuse of a model. “If national defence is the goal, this is an own goal.”

Earlier this month, the Trump administration issued