Amazon's cybersecurity research triggered a White House export control order that forced Anthropic to block access to two AI models for foreign nationals, including some of Anthropic's own researchers.

What happened

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon published research showing that Anthropic's Fable 5 model could be prompted to reveal information usable in cyberattacks. After Amazon CEO Andy Jassy shared these findings with the White House, the government issued an export control directive that led Anthropic to cut off access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreign nationals.

Why it matters

Anthropic disputed the characterization as a security flaw, arguing that similar vulnerabilities exist in other publicly available models including GPT 5.5, and some security researchers agree the research does not constitute a genuine breach. This incident fits a broader pattern: Anthropic and the Trump administration have already clashed over the company's refusal to allow its AI to be used for mass surveillance of Americans or to power lethal autonomous weapons, leading the White House to instruct federal agencies to stop using Anthropic's AI in February.

What to watch

Many of Anthropic's own researchers are foreign-born and were barred from accessing their own product as a result of the order. The two sides appeared to have reconciled when working together to expand access to Mythos, but the conflict appears poised to resurface.