Anthropic announced Tuesday that the U.S. Commerce Department has lifted export controls on its Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, ending a tense months-long dispute with the Trump administration over national security restrictions. The company had suspended access to both models in mid-June after a government directive barred any foreign national—including Anthropic’s own overseas employees—from using them. The move came as Chinese open-source models were rapidly closing the performance gap with U.S. systems, sparking concerns among tech leaders that the restrictions were handing Beijing a strategic advantage.

The reversal followed a letter from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday granting permission for Mythos 5 to be deployed to a select group of trusted partners and federal agencies. Lutnick wrote on X that his team had worked closely with Anthropic over two weeks to analyze and approve Fable 5, ensuring alignment across the U.S. government and reinforcing American AI leadership. Anthropic said it would restore access to Fable 5 starting Wednesday. The company had rushed to Washington after receiving the directive on June 12, with co-founder Tom Brown reportedly taking over negotiations from CEO Dario Amodei, a vocal critic of the administration and supporter of Kamala Harris.

The episode has left the AI industry unsettled, as companies struggle to parse the government’s evolving regulatory approach. President Trump’s June executive order on AI, which called for voluntary model submissions but offered few specifics, has created a patchwork of ad hoc restrictions. OpenAI, for instance, launched three new models on Friday—including GPT-5.6—after agreeing to limit early access to a small group of trusted partners, though it warned that such government oversight should not become permanent. The broader uncertainty over who sets policy and how decisions are made continues to ripple through the sector, with many executives calling for clearer, more predictable rules.

Source: CNBC