US lifts curbs on Anthropic’s powerful AI models — Will India regain access to Claude Mythos, Fable?

“We’ve received notice that the Department of Commerce has lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5. We’ll begin restoring access tomorrow and will share an update soon,” the company wrote late on Tuesday night. 

An X post by Anthropic also hailed users for their patience and thanked those who had worked with the AI startup on dereploying its top AI models.

What did the US government say?

According to a report by The New York Times, US authorities have fully reversed their June 12 order. The Commerce Department lifted the restrictions on Tuesday — with Secretary Howard Lutnick telling the company it no longer needed a license for exports or in-country transfers of its Claude Mythos and Claude Fable AI models. He reportedly wrote in a letter to the company that Anthropic had “taken steps in close coordination with the US government to address the risks associated with Claude Mythos 5 and Claude Fable 5”.

“Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the US Government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI,” Lutnick wrote on X.

Anthropic had received mere hours to suspend access to its Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models as the Trump admin issued an export control directive on June 12. The two advanced AI programs had remained disabled for all “foreign nationals” under US government orders — including any of Anthropic’s own employees who were not US citizens. The company had disagreed with the official stance and insisted that it was a “misunderstanding”. 

Why did Claude Fable and Mythos go offline?

Anthropic had been forced to block all non-US nationals (including its own foreign employees) from using the two top tier models a little more than two weeks ago. The AI startup had however opted to block all users from using the two advanced models because it could not reliably verify the nationality of every user in real time. 

The restrictions also occurred amid an ongoing, bitter standoff between Anthropic and the Trump administration. The latest change however appears to herald a significant deescalation of their feud — paving the way for the company to largely return to business as usual.  

Ties between the US government and Anthropic have been rocky ever since the company refused to ‌allow the military to use its AI models for domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons ‌systems earlier this year. The Trump government had retaliated by putting it on a national security blacklist. It later ordered the pause on its advanced models — something that reportedly led to the NSA losing access to Mythos.

Will India regain access?

India has already started to regain access to the two restricted AI models, although Claude Fable still remains unavailable to regular users. According to a Reuters report on Friday, the US government has already allowed Anthropic to restore use of Claude Mythos 5 for a select group of more than 100 trusted companies and institutions. A person familiar with the matter told the publication that this list included several Fortune 500 firms.

The update shared by Anthropic on Wednesday morning also confirms that Claude Fable access will be restored for all users.