WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has ordered artificial intelligence company Anthropic to block foreign nationals from accessing two of its most advanced AI models, citing national security concerns, in a move that prompted the company to suspend the systems for all users, according to company statements and media reports published on Friday and Saturday.
Anthropic said it received an export control directive from U.S. authorities requiring the company to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for any foreign national, whether located inside or outside the United States. The restriction also applies to foreign-national employees of the company, Anthropic said.
“The U.S. government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national,” the company said in a statement. Anthropic added that the order effectively required it to disable the models entirely while it works to comply with the directive.
According to reports by Reuters, Axios and other media outlets, the Commerce Department informed Anthropic that the models would be subject to export controls because of concerns that their safeguards could be bypassed and potentially used to identify software vulnerabilities. U.S. officials have not publicly released detailed technical evidence supporting the decision.
Anthropic said it disagreed with the scope of the restrictions and stated that it had not been provided with specific details about the national security concerns cited by the government. The company said the vulnerabilities referenced by officials were limited and that similar capabilities exist in other advanced AI systems.
The action marks one of the most significant U.S. efforts to restrict access to advanced artificial intelligence systems through export controls. Previous administrations have imposed restrictions on exports of semiconductors and high-performance computing technology, but direct limits on access to frontier AI models have been less common.
Industry observers and technology policy experts have offered differing views on the decision. Some have argued that stronger controls are warranted when advanced AI systems present potential security risks, while others have warned that broad restrictions could affect international research and commercial activity.
As of Saturday, Anthropic said Fable 5 and Mythos 5 remained offline. Access to the company’s other AI models was not affected by the directive, according to the company. Details regarding any future review of the restrictions remain unclear.
