US orders Anthropic to disable top AI models over foreign access fears

Anthropic announced it will abruptly disable its top-tier AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, following a US government export control directive that orders suspension of access for all foreign nationals, both inside and outside the United States. The directive, issued under national security authorities, also applies to foreign national Anthropic employees. The company stated it received only verbal evidence of a potential narrow, non-universal jailbreak that could allow the models to be used for identifying software vulnerabilities. Anthropic called the action disproportionate, arguing that a narrow potential jailbreak should not warrant recalling a commercial model deployed to hundreds of millions of users. The company had recently called for greater US oversight of AI, including the ability to block models with unacceptable risks, but now says the government's action does not follow fair and fact-based regulation.

The order marks a major escalation in US export controls, which have historically focused on AI chips and tools rather than restricting foreign access to AI models themselves. This tension comes as Anthropic confidentially filed for a US IPO, edging past rival OpenAI. The government's move follows previous disputes between the Trump administration and Anthropic, including the company's refusal to allow US military use of its models for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons, leading to a supply chain blacklist set to take effect later this year. Pentagon CIO Kirsten Davies publicly supported the order, stating national security outweighs revenue cycles and pre-IPO valuations. Anthropic had recently launched Fable 5 with guardrails barring risky uses like cybersecurity, but the government's concerns highlight the growing regulatory struggle over AI safety and foreign access.