By Michel Rose, Andreas Rinke and Julia Payne
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France, June 16 (Reuters) - G7 leaders discussed a plan to grant select “trusted partners” access to advanced AI models from U.S. firms such as Anthropic, three diplomatic sources said on Tuesday, potentially opening a path around restrictions on non-American use.
Anthropic on Friday disabled access for all users to Fable 5 and Mythos 5, its most advanced AI models. The company made that move after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered Anthropic to block foreign nationals from accessing its most advanced AI models, citing national security concerns.
One of the diplomatic sources said a number of country representatives attending the annual summit of leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations discussed the idea of widening access to advanced AI models with U.S. representatives.
This was mainly with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on the sidelines of the opening G7 summit dinner on Monday in the French lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains.
The "trusted partners" could be countries or companies, said a second source, who declined to be named because the talks were ongoing.
An agreement providing broader access to advanced models would allow G7 countries to use the models to develop stronger cybersecurity defences against rivals such as China.
A Trump White House official said in a statement that the president's team has "an open line of communication with our allies, and we remain committed to addressing national security concerns with Anthropic’s model."
AI executives from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, which are all developing highly advanced models, are expected to attend a working lunch on Wednesday to speak about technology issues, including regulation, AI infrastructure and networks, Reuters previously reported.
Anthropic's spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Cybersecurity experts believe Anthropic's Mythos, a model designed to find flaws in computer code, may turbocharge attacks on banks' technology systems. The European Union is seeking access to Mythos to study the model's implications.
Prior to Trump's order, Anthropic had given access to Mythos to select organizations in "more than 15 countries" so they could use the product to scan their computer systems for vulnerabilities, according to a company statement.
The organizations included entities in the healthcare, communications, power and water sectors, according to the statement.
The news of the "trusted partners" scheme was first reported by the Financial Times.
(Reporting by Michel Rose, Andreas Rinke and Julia Payne in Evian-les-Bains, France; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter and Courtney Rozen; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Cynthia Osterman)
