The American artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic had to suspend access to its two most powerful models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, just three days after their commercial launch, to comply with a directive from the American government, issued Friday June 12, citing “national security”.
Washington ordered, under export control, to cut off access to these models for “any foreign national, inside or outside the United States”, including “foreign employees” of Anthropic, according to the company press release. Unable to sort its users according to their nationality, Anthropic, already in dispute with the Trump administration, announced that it would have to “brutally deactivate” the two models for all of its clients in order to comply.
Security, a commercial argument
Launched on June 9, Fable 5 is the first model in the Mythos class, Anthropic’s most advanced range that the company unveiled in April without opening it to the public for security reasons. Fable 5 is restricted in sensitive areas such as cybersecurity and the risks of biological and chemical attack. Its unrestricted version, Mythos 5, reserved for 200 companies, organizations and state agencies, is presented as capable of detecting and exploiting security vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed and acuity.
According to the American media Axios, the government directive comes from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He apparently made this decision after learning that a company using the models had managed to circumvent the safeguards theoretically preventing malicious use.
Security, which Anthropic has made a commercial argument, already pits it against the Trump administration. In early March, the Pentagon severed its contracts with the company, designated a “supply chain risk.” Anthropic, whose models were the only ones accredited for secret defense, took legal action, claiming to have been sanctioned for refusing to allow its AI to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
A need for independence from the United States
Washington’s injunction to suspend the access of “all foreign nationals” to artificial intelligence models has provoked a reaction from heavyweights in the French presidential election, warning against an “AI war” and the need for independence from the United States.
“This sudden decision reminds us that artificial intelligence is already a major subject of national sovereignty,” said Jordan Bardella (National Rally) on X, urging Paris, like other officials, to “accelerate in support” for the French company Mistral AI and “the entire AI eco-system”.
In a press release, LFI called, among other things, for “the mobilization of national savings” for “strategic digital infrastructures”, and for “the opening of negotiations at the UN” to regulate AI. Its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, estimated that the American decision “proves the urgency of being independent and sovereign”, while being a “political settling of scores” of the American government with Anthropic, “supporter of ethical AI”.
“The AI war has already begun,” judged Gabriel Attal (Renaissance). “We cannot rely on others because this makes us vulnerable, the United States’ decision shows this. Anthropic is their Strait of Hormuz,” he added.
“We have mastered neither the models nor the calculation” of AI, “as essential as electricity or the Internet,” warned Édouard Philippe (Horizons). Urging Europe to “wake up”, the mayor of Le Havre called for favoring “European technology markets” and simplifying “standards which benefit American big tech”.
Welcome to Paris
A final measure also advocated by the LR presidential candidate, Bruno Retailleau, who also wants to “reorient public procurement towards sovereign solutions”, and “do with AI what we did with nuclear power (…) think of it as part of our sovereignty”. And the senator invited the boss of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, to settle in France: “you are welcome in Paris” he declared while the world of tech will meet in the French capital from June 17 to 20 for the 10th edition of VivaTech, the largest European innovation event which will bring together nearly 15,000 start-ups and 4,000 investors from around the world.
French President Emmanuel Macron is also expected on stage on Thursday June 18 to defend the vision of a France and a Europe at the forefront of disruptive technologies such as AI and quantum. “We have entered a new world (…) where we can only count on ourselves first,” commented PS boss Olivier Faure, calling for “building a real European power”.
