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Breaking · Jun 18, 2026, 01:32 PM · 4 sources

Anthropic disables Fable 5 & Mythos 5 models after US export control directive

The US administration ordered Anthropic to block foreign nationals from accessing its two most advanced AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns over a potential jailbreak technique. In response, Anthropic disabled access to both models for all users globally to maintain compliance.

This marks an unprecedented intervention in a leading AI lab's operations. The government cited concerns about a narrow jailbreak discovered by the UK's AI Safety Institute that could potentially extract malicious responses and enable multi-step tool use. Anthropic contended the vulnerability was minor and existed in rival models like OpenAI's GPT-5.5, and that the US standard would essentially halt all frontier model deployments.

The move compounds Anthropic's earlier designation as a Department of Defense supply-chain risk in March following a dispute over military use. Combined with Anthropic's pending IPO filing, the ban creates investor uncertainty: companies fear signing long-term AI contracts if models can be suddenly made unavailable by government order, complicating valuations for both Anthropic and OpenAI heading into their public listings.

Sources

Everything this brief rests on
  1. 01 Primary source bloomberg.com
  2. 02 aljazeera.com aljazeera.com “The administration of US President Donald Trump has barred foreigners from accessing the top AI models developed by Anthropic, citing national security concerns”
  3. 03 fortune.com fortune.com “The government made the decision after learning of a technique to bypass Fable 5's safeguards designed to prevent users from accessing the powerful cybersecurity abilities of Mythos”
  4. 04 axios.com axios.com “If companies don't want to sign contracts with OpenAI or Anthropic, that could put a ceiling on revenue growth for the two AI labs just before both are expected to go public later this year”