US Denies It Can Remotely Shut Down Europe’s AI

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has instructed diplomats to push back against claims that American technology products contain a “kill switch”, according to an internal State Department memo dated 16 July and reviewed by Reuters.

The instructions followed the Trump administration’s decision on 12 June to block foreign nationals from accessing Anthropic’s most advanced artificial intelligence models, Mythos and Fable, on national security grounds. The company subsequently suspended access to the models worldwide.

Although the restrictions were lifted later that month, the episode intensified calls in Europe for greater digital independence from the United States.

The memo said that temporarily limiting access to certain technologies or requiring 30 days of security testing before the release of a powerful new model did not amount to a kill switch. It described the claim that the US government had a “magic button” as an exaggerated interpretation of American technology policy.

Diplomats were also instructed to oppose so-called digital sovereignty initiatives, promote American AI products and portray efforts to build rival domestic systems as a waste of time and resources.

The memo argued that US companies could build independent AI infrastructure with secure supply chains and little risk of backdoor access.

Some European politicians, however, said the Anthropic episode had demonstrated Washington’s ability to cut off access to critical technologies. MEP Aura Salla said Europe “cannot keep building its tech stack on access that can be switched off overnight by a foreign government”.

(Reuters, bak)