Anthropic has disabled access to its newest artificial intelligence models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, after the US government issued a directive ordering the company to block all foreign nationals from using them on national-security grounds.
What Happened
According to multiple reports, Anthropic received the order on Friday afternoon, instructing it to suspend access to the two models "by any foreign national." With no reliable way to screen foreign nationals out of its global user base in real time, the company chose to switch the models off for everyone rather than attempt a partial block.
The Government's Concern
Officials are understood to have believed they had identified a method of bypassing — or "jailbreaking" — Fable 5. The action has been framed as an export-control-style measure, restricting access to advanced AI capabilities on security grounds.
Anthropic's Response
In a public statement, Anthropic said it had reviewed a demonstration of the specific technique and concluded it identified only a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities. The company said it disagreed that a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model already deployed to hundreds of millions of people, but that it had complied with the directive while seeking clarity.
Why It Matters
The move is an unusual instance of a government compelling an AI developer to pull flagship products from the market worldwide. It raises pressing questions about how national-security rules will apply to widely used AI services, the balance between security and access, and what recourse companies and users have when a model is switched off overnight.
This is a developing story.
