Aditya DidwaniyaAfter two weeks of tense negotiations, the Trump administration removed export controls on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models. The US Commerce Department cleared both models, and Anthropic says full public access resumes Wednesday.
The United States government has dropped its export restrictions on Anthropic’s two most powerful AI models. The San Francisco-based AI company confirmed on Tuesday night that it received official notice. The US Department of Commerce had removed its export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5. Anthropic said it will begin restoring full public access starting Wednesday.
“We’re grateful to our users for their patience, and to everyone who worked with us on redeploying the models,” Anthropic posted on X.
The news ended a two-week standoff between Anthropic and the Trump administration. It had started earlier in June when federal authorities ordered the company to pull both models. That happened just three days after their public launch. The government gave Anthropic only 90 minutes to take down Fable 5. Officials cited unspecified national security concerns at that time.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the announcement on X on Tuesday evening. He confirmed that his department had worked directly with Anthropic to review both models. “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI,” Lutnick wrote.
Lutnick also sent a formal letter to Anthropic co-founder Tom Brown. The letter confirmed the legal lifting of all licensing requirements. “A license is no longer required for the export, reexport, or in-country transfer, including deemed export or deemed reexport, of the Mythos or Fable models,” Lutnick wrote.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly flagged a potential method of “jailbreaking” Fable 5’s safeguards. Amazon is a major investor in Anthropic. Several outlets reported that this flag triggered the government’s emergency action.
Both Fable 5 and Mythos 5 are built on Anthropic’s original Mythos model. Anthropic had initially kept that base model away from the public. They feared it could significantly boost hacking capabilities. When Fable 5 launched, it came with strong guardrails. Mythos 5 went only to a small circle of cyber-defenders and infrastructure operators.
The export controls sparked sharp criticism from the AI policy world. Experts from across the political spectrum called the administration’s approach “ad hoc.” They warned that such abrupt government intervention could damage private AI development in the long run.
In a follow-up post, Anthropic said it will restore Fable 5 with additional cybersecurity safeguards after “productive” discussions with the US government.
The department’s export control directive marked the most significant intervention by the US government to date into an AI company’s operations. It also sparked legal questions over whether export controls can be used to regulate AI model access.
Tanishq Abraham, a former research director at Stability AI who now leads the medical AI company Sophont, called the Trump administration’s move a “big deal.” He told Al Jazeera that the relationship between Anthropic and the US government appeared to be improving. He credited co-founder Tom Brown’s efforts for the shift. “The biggest question now is: What precedent does this set for the industry? Does the US government need to approve every frontier model release?” Abraham said. “We’re already starting to see this with the GPT-5.6 release.”
The government did not place legally binding export controls on OpenAI. But the firm announced the administration asked it to delay the public rollout of its newest GPT-5.6 model series. The firm shared the models with a “small group of trusted partners,” and CEO Sam Altman said they are working toward a broader rollout in the coming weeks.
Akshay Didwaniya
Mayur Mohta
