US Government Restrictions on Anthropic AI Models
The US government has issued an export control directive to Anthropic, ordering the company to block access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models for all foreign nationals. This directive, received by Anthropic at 5:21pm ET on June 12, cites national security authorities and applies to foreign nationals both inside and outside the United States, including Anthropic's own foreign-national employees.
As a result, Anthropic has suspended access to both models for all users worldwide to comply with the order. The company notes that this suspension affects not only foreign nationals but also its own employees who are foreign nationals. Other Anthropic models, such as Claude Opus 4.8, remain unaffected.
Impact on Users
The timing of the suspension is significant, as Anthropic had begun rolling out Fable 5 on June 9, making it available for free to all Pro, Max, and Enterprise customers through June 22. Now, just three days later, the model is offline for everyone. Users will fall back to their default model or Opus 4.8, and existing Fable 5 sessions will end with an error.
The UK's Minister for AI and Online Safety, Kanishka Narayan MP, has commented on the suspension, framing it as a case for technological sovereignty and pointing to the government's £1.1bn AI chip investment. The minister's statement highlights the broader implications of the US government's actions on the global AI landscape.
Reasons Behind the Suspension
Anthropic believes that the suspension stems from a reported way to jailbreak Fable 5. However, after reviewing a demo, the company found only minor, already-known bugs, which are similar to those that can be discovered in other publicly available models without any bypass. According to Anthropic, the government has only provided verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak.
Anthropic disagrees with the government's decision, stating that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should not be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of people. The company argues that if this standard were applied across the industry, it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers.
Industry Implications
Anthropic notes that the capability in question is widely available elsewhere, pointing to OpenAI's GPT-5.5, and is used by defenders every day. The company is working to restore access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 and promises to provide more details within 24 hours. This development highlights the ongoing debate about the balance between national security and the development of AI technologies.
The US government's actions have significant implications for the AI industry, raising questions about the role of government regulation and the potential consequences for innovation. As the situation continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how Anthropic and other AI companies will respond to these new restrictions.
- Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models have been suspended for all users worldwide.
- The US government's export control directive cites national security authorities and applies to foreign nationals both inside and outside the United States.
- Other Anthropic models, such as Claude Opus 4.8, remain unaffected.
- The suspension affects not only foreign nationals but also Anthropic's own employees who are foreign nationals.
Source: BleepingComputer