The Trump administration issued a directive Friday evening to AI company Anthropic, demanding the immediate suspension of access to its latest AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, for any foreign national, both within and outside the United States. This order effectively required Anthropic to disable the newly hyped products, leading the company to dispatch employees to Washington D.C. over the weekend to seek a reversal of the decision.
Government Concerns Over AI Safeguards
The directive, received at 5:21 PM ET on Friday, stemmed from concerns that safeguards in the Fable 5 model may have failed, potentially allowing for its capabilities to be bypassed. Anthropic stated that the government believed it had become aware of a method to “jailbreak” Fable 5. However, the company countered that the reported vulnerability was a “potential narrow, non-universal” issue that was shared with the government by an unnamed entity. Anthropic asserted that the demonstrated behavior was not unique to Fable 5 and was widely available from other models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.5.
Sources indicated that the administration provided Anthropic with a 90-minute ultimatum to shut down access to both Mythos 5 and Fable 5, or face export controls imposed by the U.S. Commerce Department. Anthropic executives, including CEO Dario Amodei, engaged in discussions with high-ranking officials such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross.
Industry Reaction and Potential Consequences
Mythos 5 and Fable 5 are built upon the same foundation as Anthropic’s Mythos Preview, a model the company had previously deemed too dangerous for public release. While Mythos 5 was made available to a select group of government agencies and companies, Fable 5, incorporating additional safeguards, was presented as safe for general use. Reports suggested that concerns regarding a China-linked group accessing the technology may have fueled the government’s action, though Anthropic stated it had previously revoked access for a global telecommunications company after the U.S. government shared its concerns.
Some reports pointed to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy flagging concerns after Amazon researchers red-teamed Fable 5. The source familiar with negotiations confirmed that this research was mentioned and that Anthropic had been discussing the findings with Amazon researchers. However, Anthropic maintained that all capabilities demonstrated in the Amazon paper were achievable with OpenAI’s GPT-5.5.
Calls for Policy Reassessment
The decision has drawn criticism from some in the tech and cybersecurity community. A public letter signed by executives called for the restrictions on Fable 5 to be repealed, arguing that if regulations are necessary, they should be based on scientific evaluations with industry and academic input. Alex Stamos, chief product officer at Corridor, who organized the letter, expressed concern that policymakers misunderstand the competitive landscape with adversaries like China, where cutting-edge models are only months behind U.S. counterparts.
Stamos also suggested an overstatement of Mythos’ capabilities and that Fable 5’s safeguards were notably aggressive. He warned that sidelining U.S. AI companies could cede an advantage to China, potentially leading to increased reliance on non-U.S. AI systems and alternative hardware arrangements. Ben Van Roo, co-founder and CEO of Legion Intelligence, noted the difficulty in enforcing a directive to prevent foreign nationals from using such models.
Mitchell Landsberg is the senior reporter for News Raise and focuses on Technology. Mitchell regularly writes about social media platforms and how influencers, industry and general people use them to communicate and make money.
