The Korean Telecom Giant at the Center of Anthropic’s Mythos Controversy

The Trump administration’s determination to enforce export controls connected Anthropic’s astir almighty AI exertion followed a spat implicit the institution granting South Korean telecom elephantine SK Telecom entree to its Claude Mythos model, according to radical acquainted with the matter. US officials were acrophobic astir what they alleged were SK Telecom’s ties to China, those radical said.

Those concerns look to person compounded erstwhile Amazon aboriginal flagged vulnerabilities to the White House it identified successful Fable 5, a highly safeguarded mentation of Mythos that Anthropic released to the nationalist connected June 9. The Amazon researchers claimed that it was imaginable to circumvent immoderate of Fable 5’s guardrails and entree Mythos’ formidable cybercapabilities, though Anthropic and extracurricular cybersecurity experts person argued these risks are not unsocial to Claude.

The confluence of events is what yet led the White House to find that it could not spot Anthropic to safeguard its astir precocious AI technology, according to a idiosyncratic adjacent to the administration. On Friday, the Trump medication ordered Anthropic to revoke entree to Mythos and Fable 5 for each overseas nationals, including immigrants wrong the US.

Rather than gross entree to its exertion based connected nationality, a process that would beryllium hard to instrumentality portion besides preserving privacy, Anthropic decided it was amended to disable entree to the models entirely. The White House and Anthropic inactive stay astatine likelihood aft days of negotiations astir bringing Claude Mythos and Fable 5 backmost online.

Anthropic declined to comment. The White House and SK Telecom did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. The Washington Post antecedently reported that Trump medication officials were alarmed to larn that the Mythos recipients included a “South Korean telecommunications company” they believed had links to China, though the nonfiction did not sanction the firm. In effect to that reporting, SK Telecom told a Korean paper that the “anonymous insider’s remarks successful overseas media deficiency verified facts, and our institution has nary ties to China.”

A idiosyncratic adjacent to Anthropic said the institution viewed SK Telecom’s entree to Mythos and the vulnerabilities that Amazon identified arsenic abstracted issues. They noted that the missive the US authorities sent to Anthropic demanding that it restrict entree to Claude Mythos and Fable 5 solely to US nationals doesn’t notation the Korean institution oregon China.

Because Claude Mythos is exceptionally skilled astatine identifying bundle vulnerabilities, Anthropic restricted aboriginal entree to a tiny radical of trusted organizations done a programme called Project Glasswing. Earlier this month, SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest wireless carrier, became 1 of astir 150 companies to person entree to Mythos arsenic Anthropic expanded the programme “following respective weeks of adjacent collaboration” with extracurricular experts and the US government.

SK Telecom has poured superior into Anthropic respective times, including a $100 cardinal concern successful 2023 that coincided with the enactment of a commercialized concern to make an AI exemplary tailored to the telecommunications industry. It was 1 of respective Korean organizations to enactment successful Project Glasswing, on with Samsung Electronics and the Korea Internet & ​Security Agency.

Earlier this month, soon aft Anthropic announced Project Glasswing’s latest expansion, the White House asked Anthropic to revoke SK Telecom’s entree to Mythos, according to a idiosyncratic adjacent to the AI lab. The institution instantly complied, sources archer WIRED, and the US authorities did not endanger to enactment export controls connected the exemplary astatine the time.

While SK Telecom itself does not look to person ample operations successful China, it’s portion of a overmuch bigger conglomerate called SK Group, whose affiliates support extended concern interests successful the state spanning semiconductors, energy, and different industries.