Was the Mythos Ban Justified? (Good Idea. Bad Execution.) | AI Reality Check
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Was the Mythos ban justified based on recent AI developments?
Arguably the only topic that's more controversial than AI criticism at the moment is really any mention of the Trump administration. Well, late last week, both of these topics came together, creating a tidal wave of chaos and recrimination. Here's what happened, if you haven't been following. Back in April, Anthropic announced that their new large language model, which they called Cloud Mythos, was so good at finding bugs in computer code that it was too dangerous to release to the public.
What are the potential dangers posed by Fable 5?
Here were their exact words. The fallout for economies, public safety, and national security could be severe. Okay, fast forward to last week when Anthropic essentially said, hey, good news. We added guardrails to Mythos and now it is safe. They call this protected version of the model Fable 5 and they made it widely available. On Friday, the U.S.
How does Fable 5 raise national security concerns?
government said, not so fast. Now, according to David Sachs, who was until recently the White House AI czar, the administration had heard from an independent researcher they trusted who said that he had easily evaded the guardrails that had been added to Fable 5. The Commerce Department promptly placed Fable 5 and its unprotected version, Mythos 5, on an export control list, which means the company must suspend access Through the model from all foreign nationals, which presumably includes many of Anthropic's own employees who are here on visas and are foreign nationals, they said they won't lift this restriction until Anthropic fixes the guardrail issue.
Should the government increase its involvement in AI regulation?
In response, Anthropic had no choice but to temporarily shut down all access to these two new models.
All right, so that's what happened. Almost immediately, the internet exploded, with most of its criticism focused on the typically haphazard and inscrutable manner in which the Trump administration, as it usually does, acted in this case.
Here's a headline from The Economist that I think captures this mood well. It reads... Donald Trump's blocking of Anthropic is capricious and chaotic. America's closest allies are shell-shocked. Dean Ball, who previously served as a senior policy advisor for artificial intelligence, put it this way on X. Make no mistake, post-mythos, the United States has a licensing regime for AI.
It's just informal with no consistent rules or firm boundaries on state power or public transparency. Even Gary Marcus, who is no fan of Anthropic, was uneasy by the way this all went down, saying on X, whatever you may think of Dario or Anthropic, Friday's decision and the impetuousness and arbitrariness of it was a terrible mistake that has left a stain that will last.
But this is not a political show. So if we put the politics of the situation aside, there are some key deeper questions that lurk. For example, are these new models actually national security concerns? And two, in the hands of a more competent administration, is something like this more hands-on regulatory approach actually warranted?
Well, it's Thursday, which means it's time for an AI reality check episode of this show, which is the perfect opportunity to go seek some measured answers. And before we get into it, I want to add one warning. This is a fast moving story. I'm actually recording this episode on Monday, June 15th. By the time this episode airs on Thursday, the situation on the ground with these issues will almost certainly have changed. In fact, my read. Trying to see the chatter and the writing on the wall. My read is that the government is going to soon reach an understanding with Anthropic and they will release their export control list in the next probably one week or so. I don't know quite when, but I think that's what's probably going to happen.
This restriction was done too hastily and Silicon Valley has too much influence on the current administration for it to stand. All right. So with this in mind, what I'm going to try to focus on here in this episode are those more fundamental questions, which I think are relevant, no matter how this particular story with Fable 5 evolves in the next week or so.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
Was the Mythos ban justified based on recent AI developments?
0:01–0:34
2
What are the potential dangers posed by Fable 5?
0:34–1:00
3
How does Fable 5 raise national security concerns?
1:00–1:37
4
Should the government increase its involvement in AI regulation?
1:37–10:13
5
What criticisms have emerged regarding the Trump administration's actions on AI?
10:13–15:13
6
Are there deeper national security questions related to AI models?
15:13–29:19
Speakers
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