Washington Could Defuse Europe’s “Kill Switch” Fears
A US Commerce Department directive required Anthropic to cut foreign nationals' access to its Fable and Mythos models, prompting European fears of a US "kill switch" over AI services. The article argues the shutoff was a response to an alleged jailbreak using export controls, and that the EU joined the Pax Silica initiative in late June after France lifted its objections, having received informal guarantees that membership would not require mirroring US chip export controls. It adds that the EU received no guarantees, even informal, of future access to advanced US chips or AI models, and that digital policy official Roberto Viola returned from Washington without such assurances.
Why it matters: The episode shows how export controls and tech sovereignty concerns shape alliance cohesion in the US-China technology competition.