Anthropic pulls plug on new AI models after Trump admin directive

Anthropic said Friday it will remove access to two AI models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, to comply with a Trump administration directive restricting foreign nationals from using its latest systems due to security concerns.

Details of the government’s request, including the length of the restrictions, have not been made public.

The company said it believes the order refers to a method to bypass its Fable 5 model.

“We reviewed a demonstration of this specific technique being used to identify a small number of previously known, minor vulnerabilities,” the company 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 debuted a limited release of Mythos in April, sharing the powerful AI model with about 40 organizations that maintain critical computer infrastructure to patch security vulnerabilities.

The company later expanded access to 150 organizations, and it unveiled Claude Fable 5 on Tuesday. This new model is a straightjacketed version of Mythos that includes additional guardrails to protect against cybersecurity threats.

The White House has raised security concerns about powerful AI models, and President Trump signed an executive order earlier this month asking companies to voluntarily grant government oversight of new systems before making them public.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei supported the president’s directive, asserting in a statement on Wednesday that governments should have the power to block dangerous AI deployments that fail to meet safety standards.

However, the company said Friday that the order does not meet the appropriate level of 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,” it wrote in the statement. “This action does not adhere to those principles.”

This is not the first time the AI firm has clashed with the federal government.

Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk and prohibited the use of its Claude AI chat model following the company’s dispute with the Pentagon over safeguards for this technology.

The company sued the Trump administration over this designation and warned that the action “would set a dangerous precedent” for American companies negotiating with the federal government.

Anthropic ended its Friday statement with an apology to its customers for “this disruption.”

“We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible,” the company wrote.