Anthropic announced Friday that it is withdrawing access to two of its advanced artificial intelligence systems, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, in response to a directive from the Trump administration that bars foreign nationals from using the company’s latest technology over national security concerns.
The White House has not disclosed the full scope of its request, including how long the restrictions will remain in place. The company indicated that the government’s order appears to target a specific method for circumventing its Fable 5 model.
“We reviewed a demonstration of this specific technique being used to identify a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities,” Anthropic said in a statement. “These vulnerabilities all appear relatively simple, and we have found that other publicly-available models are able to discover them as well without requiring a bypass.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House and the Commerce Department for comment.
Anthropic initially released Mythos on a limited basis in April, granting access to roughly 40 organizations responsible for critical computer infrastructure so they could patch security flaws. The company later expanded that group to 150 organizations. On Tuesday, it unveiled Claude Fable 5, a more tightly controlled version of Mythos with additional guardrails designed to mitigate cybersecurity threats.
The Trump administration has been vocal about the risks posed by powerful AI models. Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order urging companies to voluntarily submit new systems for government review before public release. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly backed that order, arguing that governments should have the authority to block unsafe AI deployments that fail to meet safety standards.
However, the company pushed back on Friday, saying the directive does not meet the threshold for legitimate safety concerns. “As we have stated publicly, we believe the government should have the ability to block unsafe deployments, as part of a statutory process that is transparent, fair, clear, and grounded in technical facts,” Anthropic wrote. “This action does not adhere to those principles.”
This is not the first time Anthropic has found itself at odds with federal authorities. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled the company a supply chain risk and banned the use of its Claude AI chat model after a dispute with the Pentagon over safety protocols. Anthropic sued the Trump administration over that designation, warning it “would set a dangerous precedent” for American firms negotiating with the government.
The company closed its Friday statement with an apology to customers for “this disruption.” It added, “We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible.”
The clash highlights growing tensions between the AI industry and the Trump administration, which has taken a more aggressive stance on regulating emerging technologies. Similar disputes have emerged in other sectors, including a recent federal court order requiring the administration to restore removed national park displays and a D.C. Circuit rejection of the administration’s bid to halt the Kennedy Center name removal.
