Brussels pushes back after Americans-only order locks Europeans out of Anthropic's top AI models, calling out discriminatory practices.
The US government's decision to impose export controls on Anthropic's most powerful AI models is drawing scrutiny from the European Commission, which is assessing the implications for EU users.
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On Friday, the Trump administration issued a directive banning foreign nationals from using Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models, citing national security concerns, and forcing the company to cut off access for all non-US users, including Europeans.
Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are considered state-of-the-art models. Access had initially been restricted to a select group of users to assess their potential to identify and exploit vulnerabilities for cyberattacks.
"We are seeing a new generation of highly capable AI models reach the market. These models offer significant benefits, including for cyber-defence, but they also raise serious cybersecurity concerns that need to be addressed," European Commission spokesperson for tech sovereignty Thomas Regnier said on Sunday.
"This is a shared challenge, not one confined to a single jurisdiction or company. We believe that contingency measures taken in this light should not be discriminatory against partners," he added.
For the Commission, the episode is another illustration that Europe needs to strengthen its technological sovereignty, and that existing EU laws on cybersecurity and AI can help the bloc manage these emerging risks on its own terms.
"We are looking closely at the practical consequences of this for European users of these services," Regnier said.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei will join G7 leaders and the chief executives of other leading AI companies for a working lunch on Tuesday.