The American artificial intelligence company Anthropic was forced on Friday by its own government to cut off access to its most powerful models, just three days after their launch. Washington cited a national security risk in an unprecedented move.
Anthropic announced the suspension of its two new models, the highly restricted Mythos 5 and its limited version for the general public, Fable 5, in order to comply with an injunction issued that evening. Unable to screen its users, Anthropic, already embroiled in a conflict with the Trump administration over the use of these models for mass surveillance,
Washington ordered, under export control laws, that access to these models be cut off for all foreign nationals, both inside and outside the United States, including Anthropic’s foreign employees, according to the company’s statement.
According to some US media outlets, the directive came from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He reportedly acted after learning that a company had managed to circumvent the safeguards put in place for these models.
We dispute that the discovery of a potential workaround justifies the recall of a business model deployed to hundreds of millions of people,” wrote Anthropic, which believes the matter stems from a misunderstanding said Howard Lutnick.
AFP sought comment from the Commerce Department, which did not respond.
If this standard were applied across the entire sector, we believe it would essentially halt all new deployments of cutting-edge AI models,” added the company, which is at the forefront of global competition with OpenAI, Google, and the Chinese company DeepSeek, said Anthropic responsible
In early June, Donald Trump adopted a policy of optional government oversight of the most advanced models, marking a cautious shift for his administration, which had previously been dominated by opponents of any regulation, accused of hindering competition with China.
I can’t determine whether this is judicial harassment or overzealous security measures. It’s simply grotesque, commented Dean Ball, a researcher and White House AI advisor until summer 2025, on X.
Anthropic has long advocated for public regulation of AI: in an essay published Wednesday, its CEO, Dario Amodei, argued for a mandatory audit regime for the most powerful models, inspired by civil aviation, which would give the government the power to block their deployment.
But this must be done within the framework of a transparent, fair, clear, and fact-based legal process, Anthropic emphasizes. Friday’s directive does not respect these principles, the company argues.
Launched on Tuesday, June 9, Fable 5 is the first publicly released model belonging to the Mythos class, Anthropic’s most advanced line. The company revealed the existence of Mythos in early April but restricted its use to a consortium of companies and institutions, the Glasswing project, due to its cybersecurity attack capabilities.
Security, which Anthropic has made a central selling point, is already putting it at odds with the Trump administration. In early March, the Pentagon terminated its contracts with the company, which it deemed a supply chain risk.
Anthropic, whose models were the only ones with classified status, has filed a lawsuit, claiming it was penalized for refusing to allow its AI to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Anthropic, valued at nearly one trillion dollars, announced in June that it had filed for an initial public offering (IPO), as did its rival OpenAI.
The relationship between Anthropic and AI ethics is a defining focus of their corporate identity. Notable highlights include: constitutional AI, the model are trained to evaluate their own answers against a list of written rules (the Constitution) to ensure ethical boundaries are met.
Anthropic employs philosophers to help guide the AI’s “character” and improve its reasoning around subjective, ethical, and moral decisions.
Earlier in May, Pope Leo XIV announced that the Catholic Church will partner with Anthropic to help humanity find a way forward through this current era of rapid technological progress. The Pope presented his first encyclical on the topic alongside Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah. A first encyclical letter, “Magnifica humanitas,” proposes safeguarding the human person in the era of developing artificial intelligence models.
The Pope said that artificial intelligence needs to be disarmed, admitting his language is intentionally strong because this moment needs words capable of attracting attention, awakening consciences, and indicating paths forward for humanity.
Like nuclear energy, AI must be “freed from logics that turn it into an instrument of domination, exclusion, and death,” so that it can truly benefit all of humanity, said Pope Leo XIV.
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Source: Radio-Canada, Inc.com