Anthropic Disables Fable, Mythos, After US Directive To Block Access To Foreigners
The US has directed Anthropic to block foreigners from accessing its new artificial intelligence models.
The company which owns the Claude chatbot, said the development has forced it to end shut down its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, Axios reported.
This would mean not only foreign customers—as the US directive sought—but the entire spectrum of customers would not be able to access these models.
The US directive was communicated in a notice Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. This is seen as an escalatory move by the Trump administration, which is now pursuing a policy of linking artificial intelligence systems to national security.
“We received the directive from the government today at 5:21pm (ET). The letter did not provide specific details of its national security concern. Our understanding is that the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or “jailbreaking” Fable 5,” Anthropic noted in a company statement posted late on Friday evening.
The company said that the order means “we must abruptly disable Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for our customers to ensure compliance.”
Claude’s landing page announced “Fable 5 is temporarily unavailable” as of Friday evening.
Anthropic said it has worked with the US government, the UK AISI, and multiple private third-party organizations and internal teams on Fable’s safeguards ahead of its launch.
Tests conducted showed that Fable’s safeguards are substantially “more effective” than those of any previously deployed model. It also said none of the testers could spot a “universal jailbreak.”
A US administration official told Axios the Commerce Department’s action followed another company’s claim it was able to jailbreak Mythos. This raised alarm in the Trump administration about potential national security risks.
The administration also reportedly attempted to persuade Anthropic to pause its launch. After failing in that bid, it resorted to the export control letter.
The commerce departments letter states that a license will be essential “for the export, re-export or domestic transfer of those Anthropic models.” The company will also be required to submit an additional application for individually validated licenses, failing whuich “financial and civil penalties” will be slapped on it.
Anthropic had released Mythos and Fable on Tueday, touting it as an upgraded version of its cybersecurity-focused model available only to trusted organizations.
The Pentagon had in May announced new agreements with major artificial intelligence companies to deploy advanced AI tools on classified military networks, leaving out Anthropic amid a fight over military use of its technology.
Anthropic has been locked in a dispute with the Pentagon over the use of its AI. The company objected to that standard over concerns that its technology could be used for domestic mass surveillance or fully autonomous lethal weapons.
Anthropic filed for an initial public stock offering on June 1, a move that has come earlier than expected and could turn it into the next one to be valued at $1 trillion.
