The US government just did something it has never done before: it used export control powers to shut down global access to a specific company’s AI models. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick sent a directive to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on June 12, 2026, ordering the immediate suspension of exports and access to the company’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals.
By June 13, Anthropic had complied, disabling global access to both models. The speed of the response, less than 24 hours, tells you everything about how seriously the company is taking this.
What happened and why it matters
Here’s the thing. Fable 5 had been publicly released just three days earlier, on June 9. Three days from launch to global shutdown is not a normal product lifecycle.
The directive marks the first time the 2018 Export Control Reform Act has been applied specifically to AI technology. That law was originally designed to give the Commerce Department authority over emerging and foundational technologies that could threaten national security. Until now, its most visible applications have targeted semiconductor exports to China.
