Anthropic has abruptly disabled its most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all foreign nationals following a surprise export control directive from the US government.
Citing national security concerns, the order restricts access for any user outside the United States including non-American Anthropic employees.
The company stated it received the directive on June 12, noting, “The letter did not provide specific details of its national security concern.”
Anthropic believes the government is reacting to a potential “jailbreak” that could allow the model to identify software vulnerabilities.
However, the company maintains this is a misunderstanding arguing that the reported flaw is minor and that similar capabilities are already widely available in other models.
Anthropic strongly criticize the abrupt nature of the decision, stating, “We disagree that the finding of a narrow potential jailbreak should be cause for recalling a commercial model deployed to hundred of millions of people.”
The firm warned that if such a strict standard were applied industry-wide, it would “essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers.”
Anthropic is now working to comply with the directive while urging the government to adopt a more transparent and fact-based regulatory process.
