The Morning Download: Anthropic Races to Defuse Crisis Over New AI Models

Good morning. The chaotic response to Anthropic’s newest models has led to more than a shutdown, which the company ordered in response to the government’s export restrictions.

The fast-moving series of events began on Friday when the Trump administration banned foreign governments, companies and individuals from using Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, which prompted Anthropic to shut off access to everyone in order to comply, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Members of Anthropic’s technical staff are meeting with the Trump administration, in pursuit of a deal to end export restrictions on its most powerful artificial-intelligence models, the Journal said. More highlights from the coverage:

• Administration officials and Anthropic leaders spent several hours on calls Saturday discussing Fable 5, a slimmed-down version of Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model meant for the general public, people familiar with the discussions said. The discussions included Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross as well as Tom Brown, an Anthropic co-founder who is the company’s chief compute officer, and Sarah Heck, the company’s head of public policy, they said.

• On Sunday a group of cybersecurity notables signed a letter calling for the administration to lift the export controls.
• People close to the company and the administration said both parties are interested in resolving the issue and restoring access to the cutting-edge models, but it isn’t clear what a solution would entail.
• The frenzy over Anthropic’s Fable started late last week, when researchers at Amazon showed some safeguards on Fable could be evaded, alarming White House officials, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.

Beneath the drama over the last few days, there’s a sense that Anthropic’s latest models are breaching a new kind of barrier in AI development. It feels like the scene in a mummy movie where archeologists stumble upon the door to the burial chamber, crack it open and hesitate to go inside. Inevitably, curiosity wins out, and once inside they quickly discover that they should have followed their initial animal instinct for self-preservation.

While the commercial interests of Anthropic and its rivals are certainly a factor in heightening the unfolding drama, it’s easy to believe that the technical breakthroughs driving the story forward are real enough and that companies should get ready for another step-change in the functionality of AI.

Coders fight to stay in the game. While the AI boom is creating opportunities for experienced developers, there are still many software engineers with decadeslong careers who are seeing their options dwindle, the WSJ's Konrad Putzier reports. Overall, Job postings for developers are down roughly 70% from their 2022 peak.

It's playing out in academics too. Undergraduate enrollment in four-year computer- and information-science degrees fell by 8.1% last fall from the previous year, according to the National Student Clearinghouse, a sharp reversal from the 10.4% growth recorded in 2022.

• In a blog post, Anthropic noted that it was complying with the Trump administration's directive, but said it disagreed that the discovery of a potential jailbreak should lead to a recall: "If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers."

• Anthropic and the Trump administration have been sparring over the use of the startup’s AI tools by the military and some analysts have said the White House’s dislike of Anthropic may have influenced the latest model move, the WSJ reports. A senior White House official tells the Journal that the move was about model safety. Meanwhile, an official close to the U.S. government tells the Information that the White House is unlikely to extend restrictions to other AI companies. 

• Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney used the export ban as a warning against over-reliance on a small number of AI tools, Bloomberg reports. Some European leaders said the weekend events confirmed the need for homegrown AI technology, EuroNews reports.

• Fox said it is acquiring streaming company Roku in a deal worth around $22 billion, including debt. Fox and Roku said the combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing.

• Kevin O’Leary of 'Shark Tank' fame is blaming China for rising local opposition to his plan to build a natural-gas and data-center project covering thousands of acres in Utah's Hansel Valley. The WSJ reports that O’Leary hasn’t provided conclusive evidence of Chinese-government involvement. (WSJ)

• Improving AI tools and a recent rollback in content moderation on social-media platforms like Instagram is helping fuel a wave of deep fake campaign ads, leading to worries about misinformation. Researchers tracking AI-generated ads say Republicans are using them more frequently, WSJ reports.

This September 14–15, technology leaders will gather in New York City for the WSJ Technology Council Summit to explore how enterprise AI is moving from experimentation to measurable business value. Join the Technology Council and be part of the conversations shaping the future of leadership, as executives tackle AI deployment, cybersecurity, evolving technology policy, enterprise transformation and the strategies driving the next generation of business innovation.

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Follow Isabelle Bousquette on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and TikTok for more behind the scenes on her tech and AI coverage, and lately, her contributions to the WSJ Leadership Institute's new Executive Resilience series, where she's profiling America's top execs about their fitness and wellness habits.

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Steven Rosenbush is chief of the enterprise technology bureau at the WSJ Leadership Institute. He also has a column. You can follow him on LinkedIn.

Tom Loftus is the editor of The Morning Download. He suggests following Isabelle, Belle and Steve on their various social channels. But if you insist, here's his LinkedIn.