Anthropic Implemented a New Security Protocol to Win Favor with the Trump Administration

The Trump administration has removed export restrictions on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 AI model after the company agreed to maintain an existing safeguard designed to prevent users from accessing certain limited functionalities, as reported by two individuals familiar with the situation.

This safeguard ensures that users attempting to access those functionalities will be informed that their request is denied and will instead have their query handled by the less-advanced Opus 4.8 AI model, according to the sources.

Prior to Anthropic halting access to Fable 5, requests from users concerning sensitive cybersecurity and biological capabilities were intended to be processed by Opus 4.8. The newly implemented safeguard will widen this protection to cover requests regarding specific behaviors highlighted in a paper by Amazon, the sources stated.

An analysis by Katie Moussouris, founder and CEO of Luta Security, noted that after reviewing the Amazon paper, users found a way to bypass a restriction on Fable 5 by requesting the model to fix code rather than identify security flaws. While cybersecurity professionals typically do not find this behavior alarming, the administration’s awareness of it triggered a confrontation with Anthropic and led to the introduction of export controls, effectively taking the model offline.

This addition provides further context to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s letter that announced the lifting of restrictions on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models.

“Among other commitments, Anthropic has agreed to proactively identify and mitigate security risks associated with the models,” wrote Lutnick, who spearheaded the effort to restore the models. WIRED was the first to obtain and publish details of the letter on Tuesday night.

The Commerce Department eventually approved Fable 5 for public release after its Center for AI Standards and Innovation assessed that the safeguards were sufficiently strong at this time, the sources added.

Nevertheless, while Anthropic has navigated past its issues with the Commerce Department, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has informed advisors that there remains no clear pathway to remove his order from February 28, which designated the company as a supply chain risk, according to a person briefed on the details.

Thus, although some of Anthropic’s challenges with the administration have eased, they are far from completely resolved.

Court Gives Republicans Midterms Boost

Officials from the Trump administration believe they successfully influenced the US Supreme Court to deliver a favorable outcome ahead of the midterms.

In a 6-3 ruling on Tuesday, the court set a precedent allowing political parties to coordinate their messaging and spending with campaigns, thereby enabling Republicans to leverage Trump’s powerful fundraising machine.

Administration officials inform Inner Loop that the ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission will disproportionately benefit vulnerable Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.

Historically, individual Democratic candidates have raised more money from small-dollar donations compared to Republican candidates, who often closed the gap through the Republican National Committee, funded by wealthy donors.

The new rule, which allows candidates to qualify for more affordable television advertising rates, generally made Democratic candidates’ funds stretch further. (However, the effectiveness of television advertisements is increasingly perceived to be declining.)

With national parties like the RNC now permitted to purchase unlimited ads for candidates at those lower rates while coordinating messaging and attack strategies directly, the advantage in television advertising may have shifted.

As of June, the Republican National Committee reported $125.5 million in cash reserves with no debts, whereas the Democratic National Committee had $14.9 million in cash and $18.3 million in debt, according to the latest filings.

The Republicans also maintain an advantage in their House and Senate campaign committees. The National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee each reported approximately $10 million more than their Democratic counterparts.

With the midterm elections in November approaching rapidly, this ruling presents a particularly challenging moment for Democrats.

This is an edition of Hugo Lowell’s Inner Loop newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.