Chris Ciauri, international managing director of AI company Anthropic, speaks at a press conference held in Seoul on Wednesday to announce the opening of a local office and collaborations with Korean government agencies and firms. Photo by Yonhap
June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced the opening of a Seoul office and a series of partnerships with South Korean government agencies, universities and technology firms on Wednesday, days after the Trump administration imposed export controls restricting access to its most advanced AI models.
The expansion comes less than a week after Washington ordered Anthropic to suspend foreign nationals' access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, citing national security concerns.
According to reporting by The Washington Post, U.S. officials became alarmed after learning that a South Korean telecommunications company they suspected of having ties to China had received access to Mythos through Anthropic's advanced-access program. WIRED later identified the company as SK Telecom, South Korea's largest wireless carrier, though the company has denied having ties to China.
Anthropic said Wednesday that it opened a Seoul office and signed an MOU with South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT to support safe and responsible adoption of AI across the public sector. The company also highlighted collaborations with major Korean firms including SK Telecom, LG CNS and Naver Cloud, and said it would work with the National AI Research Lab, a consortium that includes leading universities such as KAIST, Korea University, Yonsei University and POSTECH.
