No breakthrough in Anthropic talks with Trump administration

SAN FRANCISCO: Officials with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic met with the Trump administration Monday as it seeks to restore models blocked over national security concerns, a spokesperson for the company said.

Anthropic said Friday that it had suspended access to two powerful AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, to comply with a US national security order.

The parties are not yet discussing lifting the restrictions after Monday’s meeting in Washington, according to a person close to the talks.

Representatives of Anthropic and President Donald Trump’s administration “are working quickly to get this resolved”, the Anthropic spokesperson said.

“This is part of our ongoing commitment to working alongside the administration toward our shared goal of protecting US critical infrastructure and the US lead in cyber defence.”

The statement marks a more conciliatory posture by the emerging AI heavyweight after Anthropic on Friday denounced the White House move.

Fable 5, released last week, is a guardrailed version of Mythos 5, a cutting-edge AI model that Anthropic has held back from the public amid concerns that it has unprecedented abilities to identify software vulnerabilities – holes in code that hackers could exploit.

On Friday, just three days after publicly launching Fable 5, the company received a government directive banning all foreign nationals, even ones who work at Anthropic, from accessing Fable 5 and Mythos 5 over national security concerns.

The intervention is striking for a White House that has otherwise pushed to loosen AI oversight – even moving to block states from writing their own rules.

Under pressure over the impressive capabilities of Mythos, Trump this month signed an executive order setting up a voluntary federal review of national security risks in advanced AI models before their release.

Sources said Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy was among the technology leaders who privately warned administration officials about security risks in Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence models.

In an earlier clash with the White House, Anthropic angered Trump’s team by refusing to allow its technology to potentially be used for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, leading the Pentagon to cut contracts with the company.

White House AI adviser David Sacks said the latest action was not tied to the earlier Pentagon dispute with Anthropic.

In response to the new dust-up, defense secretary Pete Hegseth, posting on X, celebrated the Pentagon’s earlier moves to cut ties with Anthropic, saying “every passing day proves why that was the right move.”