Signal White House asks OpenAI and Anthropic to hold new AI models from UK testers

Summary

The White House has asked OpenAI and Anthropic to withhold new AI models from the UK's AI Security Institute until the U.S. government completes its own review, Politico first reported on September 24. The request came from the Office of the National Cyber Director, and Bloomberg confirmed the report the following day. A senior administration official said the reason was that "they're American companies and this has been our policy with every new frontier model that comes out." Anthropic has already restricted its latest model to a set of U.S. organizations and said it is coordinating with the U.S. government to expand access, while OpenAI declined to comment to Bloomberg. A UK government spokesperson responded that the risks "do not stop at national borders and no country can tackle them alone," while noting that the institute keeps strong relationships with frontier AI developers.