Amazon CEO reportedly raised Anthropic model security concerns before government crackdown
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy allegedly alerted U.S. officials about security risks from Anthropic's AI models, leading to an export ban on two models and worldwide access cuts.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy may have been the source of the security concerns that prompted Anthropic to cut off worldwide access to two of its models on Friday. Jassy reportedly told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other government officials that Amazon researchers had used Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks.
In response, the government imposed an export control ban on the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. An Amazon spokesperson stated that while it is "not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks," the company does not "share the details of those discussions." The spokesperson also pointed to an update indicating that AWS has been affected by the model cut-off.
The Information and Reuters similarly reported that Amazon—a major investor in Anthropic—had communicated concerns about the security of Anthropic's models. David Sacks, former AI czar under Trump and now co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, offered his own account, claiming that "a highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG [...] came forward with a jailbreak." Sacks added, "The Admin asked [Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei] to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused."
Anthropic stated in a blog post that the capabilities that apparently caused government concern are already available in other publicly accessible models.
