Trump Administration Halts Anthropic's Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5 Over Export Control Concerns
Key Takeaways
- ▸US government issued export control directive forcing Anthropic to disable Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5 immediately, affecting foreign national access including company employees
- ▸Anthropic received 90-minute ultimatum on Friday and escalated to C-suite negotiations with Treasury Secretary, Commerce Secretary, and National Cyber Director
- ▸Government concerned about jailbreak vulnerability and potential access by China-linked entities to advanced AI models
Summary
The Trump administration issued an export control directive on Friday requiring Anthropic to immediately suspend access to its Claude Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models by foreign nationals, both inside and outside the US. The company received a 90-minute ultimatum and was forced to completely disable the products it had been promoting, with CEO Dario Amodei spending the weekend negotiating directly with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
The government's action reportedly stemmed from concerns about a potential jailbreak vulnerability in Fable 5 and fears that China-linked entities might gain access to the technology. Sources indicate the administration called Anthropic at 1 PM ET with the ultimatum, citing a report of bypass methods that could compromise the models' safety guardrails.
AnthropIc disputed the government's characterization of the threat, releasing a statement arguing that the reported vulnerability was "narrow and non-universal" and that similar capabilities were already widely available in competitors' models, including OpenAI's GPT-5.5. The company emphasized that it had shared the jailbreak report with the government voluntarily.
- Anthropic disputes severity of threat, arguing reported vulnerability is narrow and non-unique compared to competitors like OpenAI
