America Begins to Divide, Trump's Order Not Heeded
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - US President Donald Trump has firmly prohibited the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Anthropic. This stems from Anthropic’s staunch position against its AI tools being used to develop autonomous weapons or to spy on US citizens.
Anthropic, previously a supplier of AI tools to the US government with a major contract from the Department of Defense (Pentagon), has now abruptly turned into an ‘enemy’. Trump has loudly branded Anthropic as a left-wing ‘woke’ company that endangers the lives of US citizens.
The Pentagon has even struck Anthropic by adding it to the ‘supply chain risk’ list. Unwilling to accept this status, Anthropic has sought justice through legal channels.
Amid the turmoil, Trump has not yet formally revoked his ban on Anthropic. US government agencies have been instructed to completely avoid using those AI tools.
However, it appears there is a division within the Trump administration. The US National Security Agency (NSA) is reported to be using Anthropic’s latest AI tool ‘Mythos’. This indicates that the agency is not heeding Trump’s prohibition.
According to a report from Axios, Mythos is being used extensively in NSA operations, based on statements from several sources. Reuters has not been able to confirm the report.
Anthropic, the NSA, and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
It should be noted that last week, the Trump administration and Anthropic’s CEO reportedly held their first discussions on potential partnership, following recent tensions.
These talks occurred alongside growing concerns about the Mythos model, which is touted as capable of triggering more massive cyberattacks.
Mythos is the “most capable model the company has ever made for coding and agency tasks,” as Anthropic previously stated, referring to the model’s ability to act autonomously.
Its high-level coding capabilities have given it unprecedented potential to identify cybersecurity vulnerabilities and design ways to exploit them, according to experts.