Fable5 bị buộc phải ngừng hoạt động 24 giờ trước, chuyện gì đã xảy ra tại Nhà Trắng?

Original title: Inside the whirlwind 24 hours that led the White House to slap export controls on Anthropic

Original authors: Sophia Cai and Cheyenne Haslett, Politico

Original translation: Peggy

Editor's note: The Fable 5 model, released just days ago by Anthropic, was suddenly taken offline. The cause was the Trump administration citing national security concerns to restrict foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic's advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Unable to precisely distinguish user identities and access permissions, Anthropic ultimately chose to disable the relevant models for all customers.

Behind this sudden takedown was a high-pressure 24-hour negotiation between the White House and Anthropic. Regarding whether Fable 5's safety guardrails could be bypassed, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei held multiple tense phone calls with senior government officials including the Treasury Secretary, Commerce Secretary, and White House Cyber Director. The government believed the model could be used to identify software vulnerabilities, posing a national security risk. Anthropic, however, emphasized that the issue was not a "general jailbreak" and criticized the government's actions for lacking a transparent, clear, legally mandated process based on technical facts.

The key point of this incident is not just a model takedown, nor simply a communication breakdown between the White House and an AI company. It signifies that advanced AI models are being redefined as a potential national security asset. When model capabilities enter sensitive areas like cybersecurity, vulnerability discovery, and intelligence analysis, the government is no longer satisfied with corporate self-assessments and voluntary reviews. Instead, it is starting to use stronger policy tools like export controls to directly intervene in model release schedules.

Ironically, Anthropic has been one of the most vocal companies within the AI industry calling for regulation, yet now it has become the target of regulatory action. The government believes Anthropic did not take the security vulnerability seriously enough, while Anthropic feels the White House overreacted. Behind this dispute lies a new question the AI industry must face: Who has the right to judge whether a model is safe enough? Is corporate self-certification of safety still sufficient? How will rapid interventions under the guise of national security change AI companies' compliance costs, release schedules, and the global competitive landscape?

The Anthropic incident could become a watershed moment for advanced AI regulation. In the future, the release of cutting-edge models will no longer be just a product launch, but more like a high-risk deployment involving national security, geopolitics, capital markets, and industry order.

Below is the original text:

Before the Trump administration imposed comprehensive export controls on Anthropic, White House senior officials engaged in a 24-hour emergency mediation effort, attempting to convince the AI company to voluntarily take down a newly released model. Multiple government officials believed the model could pose a national security risk.

According to two government officials and one White House senior official, during this incident, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had several tense phone calls with multiple senior government figures, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Cyber Director Sean Cairncross. The individuals requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

This event also brings an increasingly urgent question to the forefront: How should the White House draw the line between innovation and security when faced with rapidly evolving, highly capable advanced AI models?

These details of the phone calls have never been reported before.

The Night Before the Model Takedown: Security Dispute

After the government imposed export controls, Anthropic was forced to take down its new model, Fable, which had been publicly released just days earlier. Anthropic had previously assured the public that the model was safe and controllable, but shortly after its release, senior government officials began reassessing whether its safety guardrails were as robust as the company claimed.

Two government officials and one White House senior official stated that on Thursday, two days after Fable's public release, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy expressed concerns to the White House about the potential for the model's safety guardrails to be bypassed.

A person familiar with Amazon's communications said the company was responding to the government's request to provide feedback on potential risks.

By Friday morning, the issue had escalated to the highest levels of the White House.

According to government officials and the White House senior official, Bessent, Cairncross, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and other senior officials held a meeting to discuss the model and the government's response. One of the sources said Bessent participated remotely as he was traveling to Houston for a scheduled public event.

After the meeting, the government attempted to contact Amodei but was told he was temporarily unavailable due to attending a health retreat. This was according to one government official and one White House senior official.

An Anthropic spokesperson denied this account, stating: "This is completely untrue."

A person close to Anthropic said the government first requested to contact Amodei around midday, and Amodei was on the phone with senior officials within 1 hour and 15 minutes. This source said that while Amodei was temporarily unavailable, Anthropic offered to have other executives communicate on his behalf.

After the government finally reached Amodei, he participated in three phone calls. The White House senior official and one government official said about half a dozen senior government officials participated, including Cairncross, Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The White House senior official said other White House staff and government officials also participated in some calls, including Commerce Department Under Secretary for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler, White House Cabinet Secretary Will Scharf, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Walters, and Presidential Policy Advisor Walker Barrett.

During the calls, Amodei tried to clarify what he believed were misunderstandings. He refuted the government's security concerns, defended Anthropic's safeguards, and emphasized that the discovered method of bypassing was a contextual issue and not equivalent to a broader "jailbreak"—where the model completely escapes the restrictions of Anthropic's safety guardrails.

In a blog post published after the export controls were imposed, Anthropic stated: "No testers have yet found a general jailbreak method—that is, a jailbreak that can broadly bypass a model’s safety measures to unlock a wide range of cyber capabilities." The company also said that completely eliminating all jailbreak attempts is currently unrealistic for Anthropic or any other AI company.

Anthropic defended its own security system, claiming its guardrails were "so strong that many users complain they are overly broad."

However, Cairncross and Bessent were not convinced by Amodei's explanations. A White House official said Amazon's findings had been submitted for review by the National Security Agency, which considered the materials sufficient to constitute "evidence."

According to the White House senior official and two government officials, the government urged Anthropic to voluntarily take down the model and coordinate with the government to fix the vulnerability. Amodei requested more time and information but did not commit to taking the model down. The White House senior official said that during one of the calls, Bessent directly told Amodei he was making a "bad decision."

The Regulatory Hammer Falls: Fable 5 and Mythos 5 Subject to Controls

Shortly after the calls concluded, the Trump administration imposed export controls on the Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models. Anthropic stated that the government used national security authority to prohibit foreign nationals from using these models. The company said the "practical effect" of the order meant that, to ensure compliance, Anthropic had to "suddenly disable" access for all customers to the relevant models.

A White House senior official said: "We begged them to work with us for hours. The export controls were a last resort. It's not what we wanted to do, but we felt we had no choice."

After the report was published, a person close to Anthropic countered, stating the company was not given a choice for "voluntary cooperation."

This person said: "The White House gave us 90 minutes to take the model down without providing any details about the actual threat. There was never any begging or request to work with us, just an announced 90-minute ultimatum."

A White House senior official said that White House officials had heard Amodei compare the danger of Anthropic's technology to nuclear bombs. Therefore, when the CEO, who has long advocated for AI safety regulation, seemed unwilling to take down the system to fix a known security vulnerability, government officials found it hard to understand.

Anthropic has long been considered one of the most vocal companies within the AI industry calling for regulation. The company has repeatedly argued that a regulatory framework is needed to address the global security risks and job displacement potentially caused by the rapid development of AI.

Three people familiar with the government's thinking said Amazon was not the only company that raised concerns with the government.

One of them said: "The core issue is that Anthropic did not take this matter seriously enough. If Anthropic had taken it seriously, instead of dismissing it as an isolated event, and proactively fixed it or suspended access, this situation would never have escalated to this point."

Another person close to Anthropic countered, arguing that the so-called "jailbreak" did not mean Fable 5's security system had failed, and noted that the company had communicated with the government before releasing Fable. This source said that during multiple rounds of communication, the government did not object to Fable's release.

After the government imposed export controls, Anthropic stated in a blog post that it would comply with the government directive but believed the measure was an overreaction.

Anthropic stated: "As we have said publicly before, we believe the government should have the power to prevent unsafe deployments, but this should be based on a transparent, fair, clear, legally mandated process grounded in technical facts. This action does not meet those principles."

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said innovation remains the White House's "primary goal, but we must also prioritize safety."

Amazon declined to disclose specific details of its communications with the government in a statement. An Amazon spokesperson said: "It is not uncommon for the government to seek our input on potential security risks. When this happens, we do not disclose the details of those discussions."

In early April this year, Anthropic announced that its latest powerful model, Mythos, would only be released to a small number of technology and cybersecurity companies to help them test software vulnerabilities. Anthropic stated at the time that because the model was too powerful, falling into the wrong hands could have serious consequences, thus requiring restricted distribution.

The arrival of Mythos led to a series of meetings between Amodei and White House senior officials. Both sides described these meetings as productive. Subsequently, multiple rounds of discussions on how to regulate advanced AI models took place, eventually contributing to a recent executive order requiring companies to voluntarily submit advanced models for government review before broad deployment.

Fable 5, publicly released this week, was described by Anthropic as a "Mythos-level model" but equipped with additional safety measures making it suitable for general users. The model was reviewed by the U.S. government and the UK AI Safety Institute.

However, after the so-called security flaws were disclosed, several government officials believed the model must be taken down immediately.

On Saturday morning, former White House AI director and staunch deregulation advocate David Sacks posted on X, supporting the government's export controls on Anthropic.

Sacks stated that he did not believe this "jailbreak" was simple or trivial, nor did he see the export controls as an attempt by the government to broadly control the AI industry. Sacks wrote: "The government now wants Anthropic to fix the security issue, then lift the export controls and allow Fable to return to public release. The government wants this to happen as quickly as possible. Frankly, the government is puzzled that Anthropic, which has always said safety requests are its top priority, is now unwilling to cooperate."

Sacks and other officials within the government have previously criticized Anthropic, accusing it of left-wing political bias and claiming the company was spreading panic by advocating for stronger industry regulation and warning of massive job displacement.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon took the disagreement between the government and Anthropic to an unprecedented level. On March 3, because Anthropic refused to allow its AI tools to be used for mass domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons systems, the Pentagon listed the company as a supply chain risk.

On Saturday, Sacks said the pre-existing dispute between the government and Anthropic was separate from the export control decision. Sacks wrote: "The government values Anthropic's technical capabilities and believes this issue, while serious, should be easily resolvable. The ball is now in Anthropic's court."

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