White House officials pin Anthropic AI export block on Korean telecom: Report

A Korean telecommunications company is suspected of being the reason the U.S. government decided to block exports of Anthropic's advanced AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5.

Last Friday, Anthropic announced it would suspend all foreign access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after the U.S. government imposed export controls on national security grounds.

The Washington Post reported Monday, citing anonymous U.S. government officials, that the White House began considering export controls after identifying a Korean telecommunications company “suspected of having ties to China” among organizations granted access to Mythos 5. Korean telecom operators denied any involvement.

The only Korean carrier known to have received access to Mythos is SK Telecom. The company announced earlier this month that it had secured early access to the model after joining the security consortium Project Glasswing. However, the telco declined to comment on the speculations.

LG U+, the only Korean telecom operator that uses Huawei equipment in its 5G network, also denied any connection.

"We have not been granted access to Mythos," the company said.

A few weeks ago, Anthropic submitted a list of 111 organizations that had been granted early access to Mythos to the Trump administration, according to a Washington Post report. The administration reviewed and approved the list.

Anthropic later submitted an additional list of organizations with access to the model, which included the suspected China-linked Korean telecommunications company, according to the report. The official said that after identifying such a Korean company, authorities moved to impose export controls.

The Washington Post said it "badly damaged officials’ confidence" in the company’s security for its sensitive technology.

The U.S. news outlet quoted an official who said, “They expanded it too far and wide.”

Anthropic's Mythos, launched in April, is an AI model capable of identifying software security vulnerabilities on its own and carrying out attacks that exploit them. Fable 5 is Anthropic's public version of its Mythos-class model.

BY KIM MIN-JEONG [[email protected]]