Anthropic cut off access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models following a government export control directive citing national security concerns, blocking all foreign nationals and even internal employees. The company complied but criticized the lack of specific evidence, stating the alleged vulnerabilities were minor and available in other models like GPT-5.5.
<figure>
<img alt="Anthropic logo on an orange background." data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/STK269_ANTHROPIC_2_D.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0,100,100" />
<figcaption>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p class="has-text-align-none">On Friday evening, the government ordered Anthropic to block access to <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5">Fable 5 </a>and Mythos 5 for all foreign nations, both inside and outside the US, due to national security concerns. That order included employees of Anthropic. To meet those demands, the company has completely cut off access to the models for all customers.</p>
<p class="has-text-align-none">In a <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access">statement</a>, Anthropic said that while it was complying with the order, the government "did not provide specific details of its national security concern." Instead, it claims that any evidence of potential jailbreak was provided verbally, and that the vulnerabilities discovered were minor and available via other model …</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949553/anthropic-fable-5-mythos-5-government-national-security">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>
# Anthropic cuts off Fable 5 and Mythos 5 access following government order
Source: [https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949553/anthropic-fable-5-mythos-5-government-national-security](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949553/anthropic-fable-5-mythos-5-government-national-security)
[Skip to main content](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/949553/anthropic-fable-5-mythos-5-government-national-security#content)
An export control directive citing national security concerns required blocking access for all foreign nationals\.
An export control directive citing national security concerns required blocking access for all foreign nationals\.
by
Jun 13, 2026, 12:55 PM UTC
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge
[](https://www.theverge.com/authors/terrence-obrien)
Terrence O'Brien
is the Verge’s weekend editor\. He has over 18 years of experience, including 10 years as managing editor at Engadget\.
On Friday evening, the government ordered Anthropic to block access to[Fable 5](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5)and Mythos 5 for all foreign nations, both inside and outside the US, due to national security concerns\. That order included employees of Anthropic\. To meet those demands, the company has completely cut off access to the models for all customers\.
In a[statement](https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access), Anthropic said that while it was complying with the order, the government “did not provide specific details of its national security concern\.” Instead, it claims that any evidence of potential jailbreak was provided verbally, and that the vulnerabilities discovered were minor and available via other models, including GPT 5\.5\.
In its statement, the company lays out the steps it took to safeguard Fable and Mythos, including working with the US and UK governments and changing its[data retention policy](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/15425996-data-retention-practices-for-mythos-class-models)to help track attempts to use them for malicious purposes\. It goes on to say that:
> We have not even received a disclosure of a concerning non\-universal potential jailbreak that led to a harmful result\. The potential jailbreaks that have been disclosed to us are either entirely benign responses or are minor findings that provide no Mythos\-specific uplift\.
**Follow topics and authors**from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates\.
- Terrence O'Brien
## The Verge Daily
A free daily digest of the news that matters most\.
The US government has issued an export control directive to suspend access to Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models due to national security concerns, citing a potential jailbreak method. Anthropic is complying by disabling access for all customers, but disputes the severity of the vulnerability.
Anthropic disables its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models after receiving a US government export control directive citing national security concerns, escalating tensions between the company and the Trump administration.
The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to block access to its AI models Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreign nationals, citing national security export controls. Experts say this unprecedented action exposes uncertainty in AI governance, as traditional export rules don't clearly apply to remote AI services.
The US government issued an export control directive forcing Anthropic to pull its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models offline, citing national security concerns. Security researchers argue the alleged guardrail bypass does not justify such action and that the move harms US cyber defense.
The shutdown of Fable 5 and Mythos 5 due to US government restrictions on foreign access marks a shift where frontier AI is treated as controlled strategic infrastructure, raising concerns about opaque control and accelerating interest in sovereign and open alternatives.