Fears of China accessing Mythos led to export curbs: Report
What's the story
The White House's decision to impose export restrictions on Anthropic's Mythos was partly due to concerns that a group associated with China may have accessed it, according to Semafor. The potential access of Mythos 5 or Fable 5 by the Chinese government could pose a major national security threat. They could even try to reverse-engineer the model through distillation, where a "student" AI is trained on a more advanced model to replicate its behavior.
Official silence
White House hasn't confirmed China's alleged access to Mythos
The White House has not confirmed the report of China's alleged access to Mythos. David Sacks, an advisor to US President Donald Trump, also didn't mention China in his post on X. He instead focused on a reported ability for Fable and Mythos to be jailbroken, something that Anthropic has denied. When Semafor reached out for comment, Anthropic didn't respond, but a spokesperson said that China wasn't mentioned during government discussions about export controls.
Security concerns
Mythos already compromised by a Discord group
If the Chinese government did access Mythos, it wouldn't be the first time Anthropic's powerful model has been compromised. The company had previously claimed that Mythos was too dangerous and powerful for public use. However, a Discord group reportedly had access to it for two weeks before Anthropic discovered the breach and cut off their access.