The U.S. Commerce Department has lifted export controls on Anthropic's Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models, allowing the company to restore public access starting Wednesday. This decision comes less than three weeks after the models were initially restricted due to national security risks, specifically concerns about their potential misuse for sophisticated cyberattacks or the development of biological weapons. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the decision via a post on X, stating his office "worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America's leadership in AI."
Anthropic had abruptly disabled its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models on June 12 following the export control order. Last week, the Trump administration permitted Anthropic to restore access to Mythos 5 for a select group of government-approved organizations. The company stated that it has implemented a new safeguard that blocks a previously identified "jailbreak" 93% of the time, and in the remaining 7% of cases, the output only revealed already discovered or patched security flaws. However, this new safeguard might also lead Fable to flag more benign requests.
The lifting of these restrictions highlights the ongoing challenges in regulating and evaluating advanced AI models. While U.S. officials and allies are increasingly concerned about the potential for frontier models, the ad hoc regulatory environment creates uncertainty for AI companies. Similarly, OpenAI delayed the full public launch of its GPT-5.6 model, making it accessible only to a small group of approved customers at the U.S. government's request. This situation also unfolds as China continues to develop its own AI competitors and release open-weight models, intensifying the global AI race.
