Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include a comment from an Amazon spokesperson.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy was reportedly behind the security concerns that led to a U.S. export control ban on Anthropic’s two “Mythos-class” AI models, built for highly complex reasoning and long-horizon agentic work.
Jassy’s Treasury Warning Sparks Global Shutdown
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing sources, that Jassy told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that Amazon researchers used the Fable 5 model to obtain information usable in cyberattacks, prompting Anthropic’s global shutdown of the models.
On Friday, Anthropic disabled access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after the government directed the company to bar foreign nationals from the systems on national security grounds.
The Information and Reuters similarly reported the concerns, attributing them to Amazon, a major Anthropic investor.
In a statement to Benzinga, an Amazon spokesperson said, "As a leading cloud provider that serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it is not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks. When they occur, we do not share the details of these discussions."
In April, Anthropic committed to spending over $100 billion on Amazon Web Services infrastructure, including Trainium chip capacity, while Amazon added $5 billion in fresh investment in the startup, building on its earlier $8 billion stake.
Sacks Says Anthropic Refused Safety Fix
David Sacks, former White House AI and Crypto Czar who currently co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said on X that a “highly credible trusted partner” of both Anthropic and the U.S. government, testing Fable, found a jailbreak. Sacks wrote, “The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused.”
Earlier, in a blog post, Anthropic said the capabilities apparently causing government concern are already available in other publicly accessible AI models.
Amazon became a major shareholder in the Dario Amodei-led AI startup Anthropic in September 2023. The company has been in the news recently for various reasons. The Pentagon designated Anthropic’s Claude models a supply chain risk earlier this year. The company is also expected to go public later this year.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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