The Fable 5 crisis continues as Anthropic clashes with the US government over export controls. The episode details conflicting narratives about a jailbreak of Anthropic's Mythos model, with the White House citing national security concerns and Anthropic arguing the threat was exaggerated. The resolution appears to hinge on interpersonal dynamics between Anthropic's CEO and key administration officials.
Summarized by Podsumo
The US government imposed export controls on Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models after Amazon reported a jailbreak that allowed access to cyber capabilities, leading to a national security standoff.
Former AI Czar David Sachs framed Anthropic as hypocritical, urging Dario Amodei to fix the vulnerability, while Anthropic argued the jailbreak was narrow and posed minimal risk.
Media reports suggest the decision was driven by personal tensions, with White House officials characterizing Anthropic's response as insufficiently serious, and Anthropic denying claims that Dario was unavailable.
Cybersecurity experts and researchers criticized the policy, noting that similar capabilities exist in other models and that the action risks hindering US AI leadership vs. China.
"The admin issued the export control reluctantly. It's been very surprised that Anthropic hasn't wanted to cooperate with a reasonable safety request."
— David Sachs
"How exactly is the government planning on even going about verifying everyone who uses this specific model to ensure compliance? That alone raises huge flags."
— Adam Terrier (RSI Senior Fellow)