President Trump has banned non-American nationals from accessing Anthropic’s newest AI model, forcing the company to suspend the model for all users.
Anthropic, which is the maker of Claude, said the US government cited national security for its banning order before it pulled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 from use. The decision has raised concern about the UK’s ability to keep up with powerful technology and maintain sovereignty.
According to the multi-billion dollar company, the US raised concerns over a “method of bypassing” the AI model, whereby users might be able to trick the bot for more nefarious purposes.
Anthropic said Fable had “minor vulnerabilities” and that it had imposed safeguards after work on cybersecurity with the US government and the UK’ AI Security Institute.
“No testers have yet been able to find a universal jailbreak—a jailbreak method that can very broadly bypass the model’s safeguards, unblocking a wide range of cyber capabilities,” Anthropic said.
The US-based firm said it had to comply with the government’s legal order though it said it disagreed with the decision to ban foreign nationals from using the model, adding that more AI models would be banned if the standards were applied consistently.
AI decision stuns politicians
Fable had been widely anticipated by users due to its ability to achieve complex tasks such as creating games, coding softwares and control systems.
Its ban now has left tech analysts and influential political figures reeling over the possible consequences of a ban for foreign nationals.
It is also not the first time that the Trump administration has clashed with Anthropic after the AI firm was labelled as a “supply chain risk” when chief executive Dario Amodei sought to limit the model’s use across defence and military systems over ethical concerns..
UK AI minister Kanishka Narayan said in a post on X: “The main lesson: as we debate the future of national security and technological sovereignty, access to AI capabilities is crucial.”
He defended the government’s decision to fund the UK Sovereign AI unit, an investment fund which will back homegrown AI founders.
Former security minister Tom Tugendhat said the ban on foreign nationals was the “inevitable result of technology shaping warfare so that sovereignty is more about code than cannons”.
“With high energy costs and the emphasis on safety not opportunity Britain’s response has been to build the brake cutting ourselves off from the future and tied ourselves to the past,” he said.
Former UK government adviser Raoul Ruparel said the turn of events would be a “wake up call” for countries other than the US and China as potential “security and economic disparities” may emerge.
Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf claimed he had warned “for months” about an access ban as he hit out at the government for having “virtually zero sovereign AI capability”.
