Two of America’s biggest investment banks — JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs — have sent a ‘Do not use’ note on Anthropic to employees outside the US. According to a report in Financial Times, JPMorgan Chase has stopped its staff in Hong Kong from accessing Anthropic’s AI models, following a similar move by rival Goldman Sachs in a sign of the intense scrutiny on the technology’s use outside the US. Employees of the Wall Street bank in Hong Kong are now reportedly unable to access Claude models from a “drop-down” list of approved large language models (LLMs) available internally. The report quotes people familiar with the situation. One person reportedly told FT that the decision was based on the wording of Anthropic’s usage terms in its licensing agreement with JPMorgan. Earlier this year, Goldman had stopped bankers in Hong Kong from using Anthropic. The bank took a strict interpretation of Anthropic’s terms of use that exclude usage in Greater China, according to one person familiar with the decision.Western AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Claude are banned in mainland China as part of the so-called Great Firewall that restricts information from outside the country. However, Hong Kong has long operated mostly free of Chinese censorship. The restrictions on usage in Hong Kong are usually the ones imposed by the US AI companies themselves. According to the report, while models cannot be accessed directly from Hong Kong, international organisations have been able to circumvent geographic restrictions by negotiating global contracts and hosting activity outside China.
US government sends ‘ban letter’ to Anthropic
Late last week, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, ordered the company to suspend exports of its Mythos and Fable AI models to destinations worldwide and all foreign nationals, citing concerns they could be used by military intelligence users in China, Russia and other countries of concern. The US government ordered Anthropic not to give its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models to foreign nationals anywhere in the world without a license from the Commerce Department, citing national security concerns.
Europe alarmed by America’s ‘AI ban’
The US order to limit foreigners’ access to the latest AI models triggered alarm in Europe, which is increasingly concerned about its dependence on American technology companies and infrastructure. A growing movement on the continent is pushing for the development of sovereign capabilities. French President Emmanuel Macron led talks with Group of Seven leaders and tech executives to explore how to deploy the most advanced artificial intelligence models through so-called trusted partners. “I very much hope that we will have an intensive coordination with the American government, because the potential of these new technologies should be available for all countries,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters.In their remarks at G7, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO SAm Altman broadly called for countries to work together on AI safety initiatives, and ensure that the world can access and benefit from cutting-edge AI models. “The question before us now, and particularly before all of you, is how we can usher this technology into the world in a way that benefits everyone,” Altman said, “how we can balance the very real need for safety with the desire of the world to use and benefit from this technology in a democratic and open way.” Anthropic previously called for the creation of a system in which governments and AI developers collectively decide when to slow work on the technology to stave off the risks it may pose.
