A fresh restriction imposed by US-based artificial intelligence company Anthropic on access to its latest AI models has triggered sharp reactions from Indian tech leaders, with Sridhar Vembu declaring that “globalization is dead” and urging India to accelerate efforts to build sovereign AI capabilities.

The strong reactions came after Anthropic suspended global access to its advanced AI models Fable 5 and Mythos 5 following an export control directive issued by the United States government over national security concerns.

Sridhar Vembu says technology has become the ultimate weapon

Reacting to the development on social media on Saturday, Sridhar Vembu described the move as a major signal that technology is now deeply intertwined with national security and geopolitical power.

Calling the decision a “big development,” Vembu said countries like India can no longer depend entirely on foreign technology infrastructure.

“This is big: all access to Mythos and Fable AI models disabled for everyone outside America. First thoughts: Technology is the ultimate weapon. National sovereignty, national security, all of it is now about technology,” Vembu wrote on X.

Mohandas Pai calls for urgent India AI Mission

Responding to Vembu’s post, investor and entrepreneur TV Mohandas Pai urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch an aggressive national AI strategy.

Pai said India urgently needs a large-scale India AI Mission backed by both the government and private sector to ensure the country does not fall behind in the global AI race.

In a post on X, Pai wrote, “PM Narendra Modi Sir, we need an India AI Mission under you with Nandan Nilekani as vice-chair and others from the private sector and government to help India tackle the AI revolution.”

He further argued that existing government programmes are too slow and too small to create any significant impact.

Pai proposed the creation of an annual Rs 50,000 crore deep-tech and AI fund, along with a Rs 2 lakh crore ELGS Guarantee Fund to build hyper cloud infrastructure, hardware and semiconductor capabilities.

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What triggered the AI access ban

The controversy began after Anthropic announced late Friday that it had been forced to disable access to its newest AI systems after receiving instructions from the US Commerce Department.

The restrictions apply not only to users outside the United States but also to foreign nationals working within Anthropic itself.

In a statement, the company said, “The US government, citing national security authorities, has issued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside the United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees.”

The company clarified that access to its other AI models remains unaffected.

Vembu pushes for India’s AI independence

Vembu said the latest development should serve as a wake-up call for India and urged both the government and private companies to invest in homegrown AI models rather than depending on Western technology providers. He suggested Indian organisations begin adopting smaller AI models, including Indian and Chinese open-source alternatives, arguing that these can become viable with sufficient investment and engineering effort.

“With a bit of effort, we can make them work. Anyway, why pay money to people who don’t even want to sell to you?” he said.

According to him, training advanced AI models now requires not just billions of dollars in funding but also access to advanced graphics processing units (GPUs), many of which are themselves subject to export restrictions.

“So we can’t afford the scale of money — of the order of $100+ billion to even get in the game. And even if we could come up with the money, we can’t get all the GPUs,” Vembu said.

He added that while India should focus on AI development, spending tens of billions of dollars of public money may not necessarily be the best use of government resources.

What are Fable 5 and Mythos 5?

Anthropic’s Fable 5 is a public-facing version of its more advanced Mythos 5 AI system, which was originally considered too powerful for general release.

Before the broader launch, Anthropic had reportedly allowed select cybersecurity and technology companies limited preview access to the system. However, days after releasing the toned-down version for public use, the company abruptly suspended access following government orders.

US authorities have not publicly disclosed specific security concerns behind the decision.

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AI becoming the new geopolitical battleground

The latest restrictions have once again highlighted how artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as a new battleground for global technological dominance.

For India, Vembu’s remarks underline growing concerns that dependence on foreign AI infrastructure could leave countries vulnerable as governments increasingly weaponise access to critical technologies.

As the global race for AI supremacy intensifies, the debate over technological self-reliance is likely to become central to India’s long-term economic and strategic planning.