China may have accessed Mythos

# China may have accessed Mythos Source: [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949644/china-white-house-anthropic-mythos](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949644/china-white-house-anthropic-mythos) [Skip to main content](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949644/china-white-house-anthropic-mythos#content) The White House reportedly has suspicions that a China\-linked group had access to Anthropic’s powerful AI\. The White House reportedly has suspicions that a China\-linked group had access to Anthropic’s powerful AI\. by Jun 14, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC   Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge [](https://www.theverge.com/authors/terrence-obrien) Terrence O'Brien is the Verge’s weekend editor\. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget\. According to a new report from*[Semafor](https://www.semafor.com/article/06/13/2026/white-house-move-to-limit-anthropic-linked-to-concerns-about-chinese-access-to-mythos)*, the White House’s decision to impose[export restrictions](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949553/anthropic-fable-5-mythos-5-government-national-security)on Anthropic’s Mythos was driven in part by fears that it had been accessed by a group linked to China\. If the Chinese government actually had access to Mythos 5 or Fable 5, it would present a serious national security risk\. The government could also attempt to reverse engineer the model through[distillation](https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/knowledge-distillation), a method in which a “student” AI is trained on a more advanced model to replicate its behavior\. The White House has not confirmed this report, and a post on X by Trump advisor[David Sacks](https://x.com/davidsacks/status/2065853007619588171?s=46)did not mention China\. Instead, Sacks focused on a reported ability for Fable and Mythos to be[jailbroken](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949601/amazon-anthropic-fablemythos-government-ban), something that Anthropic has denied\. Anthropic has not replied to a request for comment, though a spokesperson told*Semafor*that the government did not bring up China during its discussions around export controls\. If Mythos was accessed by the Chinese government, it wouldn’t be the first[embarrassing](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/917644/anthropic-claude-mythos-breach-humiliation)breach of Anthropic’s most powerful model\. The company has said that Mythos is too dangerous and powerful for public consumption, but a Discord group[reportedly had access](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/916501/anthropic-mythos-unauthorized-users-access-security)for two weeks before Anthropic discovered the breach and cut off access\. **Follow topics and authors**from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates\. - Terrence O'Brien ## The Verge Daily A free daily digest of the news that matters most\.