The US government just pulled the plug on two of the most advanced AI models in existence, and the timing could not have been more diplomatically awkward.
On June 12-13, the Commerce Department issued export controls on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, citing national security concerns. Anthropic responded on June 13 by disabling the models for all users, including those in the United States, to ensure full compliance. Four days later, world leaders sat down at the G-7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, to discuss global AI governance, only to find that the biggest AI story of the week was the US government unilaterally pulling the rug out from under one of its own flagship companies.
What happened and why it matters
The Commerce Department’s directive required Anthropic to cut off access for all foreign nationals. Rather than risk non-compliance by trying to sort domestic users from international ones in real time, Anthropic chose to shut everything down for everybody.
If you were using Fable 5 or Mythos 5 for anything, whether you sit in San Francisco or São Paulo, you lost access on June 13.
