TL;DR
Amazon’s Jassy reportedly told the government that researchers used Fable 5 for cyberattack info. That triggered the order to shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
Andy Jassy told the Treasury Secretary that Amazon researchers used Fable 5 to obtain cyberattack information, the Wall Street Journal reports
Amazon’s Jassy reportedly told the government that researchers used Fable 5 for cyberattack info. That triggered the order to shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was reportedly the source of security concerns that led the US government to force Anthropic to shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for every customer on Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported that Jassy told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other officials that Amazon researchers used Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks. The government then imposed an export control ban on both models.
The revelation adds an uncomfortable dimension to the story. Amazon is one of Anthropic’s largest investors, having put in billions and receiving a $100 billion cloud spending commitment in return. The company that bankrolls Anthropic’s infrastructure is also the one that told the government its models are dangerous.
An Amazon spokesperson said it is “not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks” but declined to share details of the discussions. The spokesperson also pointed to an AWS status update confirming that Amazon’s own cloud platform was affected by the model shutdown.
David Sacks, Trump’s former AI czar who now co-chairs the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, offered a different account. He said “a highly credible trusted partner of both Anthropic and the USG came forward with a jailbreak.” Sacks added: “The Admin asked Dario to fix the jailbreak or de-deploy the model. Dario refused.”
Anthropic’s version is different. The company said it reviewed the jailbreak technique and found it surfaced “a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities.” It called the government’s response disproportionate and said the capabilities causing concern are already available in other publicly accessible models. The shutdown affected every customer globally because Anthropic cannot filter foreign nationals from US users in real time.
The sequence matters for the AI industry. Amazon invested billions in Anthropic. Anthropic built models on AWS. Amazon’s CEO told the government those models pose security risks. The government used export controls to force them offline. AWS was then affected by the shutdown. It is an ouroboros of corporate dependency and regulatory blowback.
For Anthropic, the immediate question is how quickly it can restore access. For the broader industry, the precedent is what matters. If a major cloud provider can trigger an export control action against its own portfolio company by raising concerns with the Treasury Secretary, the competitive dynamics of the AI market just gained a new weapon. Mythos is used by banks and government agencies for vulnerability discovery. Every one of those customers lost access because of a dispute between Anthropic’s biggest investor and the government its CEO has been lobbying for more regulatory power. Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.