The Trump administration gave Anthropic just 90 minutes on Friday to pull its newly released artificial intelligence models before imposing sweeping export controls. The move sparked a confrontation between government security officials and the AI company, which ended with the company disabling two flagship models for hundreds of millions of users, according to reporting by Axios and Politico.

The controls targeted Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, which the U.S. Commerce Department moved to restrict after senior White House officials concluded that a newly disclosed security vulnerability posed a national security threat. Anthropic disputed the finding, saying the issue was minor, already known, and replicated by publicly available competing models.

The Trump administration imposed export controls, forcing Anthropic to pull its new AI model, Fable 5, just days after its release to the public. Anthropic had given assurances that the model was safe, but soon after its release, top administration officials developed fresh doubts that the AI’s guardrails were as secure as the company had suggested.

Amazon CEO Raises Initial Red Flags With White House

The sequence began Thursday, two days after Fable 5’s public launch, when Amazon CEO Andy Jassy raised concerns with the White House about the ability to bypass the model’s guardrails, according to Politico, which cited two administration officials and a senior White House official who spoke anonymously. Amazon, an investor in Anthropic, was responding to an administration request for feedback, a person familiar with Amazon’s discussions told Politico.

By Friday morning, the issue had reached the highest levels of the White House. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Cyber Director Sean Cairncross, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and other senior officials met to discuss the model and the administration’s response, according to the administration official and the senior White House official. Bessent joined remotely while traveling to Houston, Politico reported.

Conflicting Accounts Emerge About CEO’s Availability

The administration then attempted to reach Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. A senior White House official told Politico that Amodei was unavailable because he was attending a wellness retreat, a claim an Anthropic spokesperson flatly rejected.

“This is absolutely false,” the spokesperson said.

A person close to Anthropic told Politico that Amodei was first contacted around noon and was on a call with senior officials within an hour and 15 minutes. The source added that Anthropic offered other senior leaders in his place while he was unavailable.

Multiple High-Stakes Calls Fail to Resolve Standoff

Amodei ultimately participated in three calls with roughly half a dozen senior administration officials, according to Politico. Other participants included Cairncross, Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to Politico. The calls also involved Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Jeffrey Kessler, White House staff secretary Will Scharf, White House deputy chief of staff Richard Walters, and an assistant to the president for policy.

The series of tense conversations underscores how the White House is wrestling in real-time with regulating fast-moving and potentially dangerous AI models, according to the multiple sources who spoke to Politico. The details of the calls had not been previously reported before Politico’s investigation.

Administration Moves Quickly to Impose Export Restrictions

The move illustrates the mad dash within the government to react to warnings from Amazon and others about the models’ capabilities, according to Axios. The rapid timeline highlights how artificial intelligence systems are evolving faster than traditional regulatory frameworks can accommodate, forcing officials to make high-stakes decisions within extremely compressed timeframes.

The Trump administration’s decision to impose sweeping export controls on Anthropic followed a frantic 24-hour effort by senior officials to convince the company to voluntarily pull the newly released artificial intelligence model that officials believed posed security risks, according to two administration officials and a senior White House official who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the episode.

The confrontation illustrates the breakneck pace at which officials are attempting to regulate artificial intelligence systems. The White House faces mounting pressure to balance national security concerns against the need to maintain America’s competitive edge in AI development. The episode reveals deep tensions between government regulators and private AI companies over who determines when models are safe enough for public release.

Company Disputes Government’s Security Assessment

Anthropic maintained that the security vulnerability cited by administration officials was minor and already known within the industry. The company argued that publicly available competing models replicated the same issue, raising questions about why officials singled out Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for such aggressive action. The dispute highlights fundamental disagreements between AI developers and government officials about how to assess and respond to potential security threats in cutting-edge artificial intelligence systems.

The 90-minute deadline represents one of the shortest enforcement windows ever imposed on a major technology company. The unprecedented speed reflects the administration’s view that the models posed immediate national security risks requiring emergency intervention. The decision to move forward with export controls after the company refused to voluntarily disable the models marks a significant escalation in government oversight of artificial intelligence development.

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