According to a new report from SemaphoreThe White House’s decision to impose an export ban on Anthropic’s Mythos was partly motivated by fears that it had been accessed by a group linked to China. If the Chinese government actually had access to Mythos 5 or Fable 5, it would pose a serious national security risk. The government may also attempt to reverse engineer the model through distillation, a method in which a “student” AI is trained on a more advanced model to replicate its behavior.
The White House has not confirmed the report, and a post on X by Trump adviser David Sachs does not mention China. Instead, Sachs focused on the reported ability to jailbreak Fable and Mythos, which Anthropic has denied. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment, though a spokesperson said Semaphore The government did not mention China during the discussion on export controls.
If Mythos were accessed by the Chinese government, it would not be the first shameful violation of Anthropic’s most powerful model. The company has said that Mythos is too dangerous and powerful for public consumption, but a Discord group reportedly had access for two weeks before Anthropic discovered the breach and shut down access.
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