Trump drops restrictions on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable models

The US has lifted a requirement that Anthropic obtain a license before exporting its Mythos and Fable models abroad, a requirement that effectively cuts off public access to what are widely considered to be the most advanced AI models released to date.

The AI ​​lab said it would begin restoring access to the models on Wednesday, July 1.

On June 12, the US government had added the products to the list of export-restricted technologies, meaning they could no longer be made available to foreigners without special approval. Enforcing that rule proved impractical on a large scale, forcing Anthropic to end public access to the models altogether.

Now, after weeks of talks, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that Anthropic “has agreed to proactively identify and address security risks associated with the models; to work diligently with the U.S. government on protocols, standards and releases for Mythos, Fable and future models; and to notify the U.S. government of any malicious activity.”

Anthropic had already done that publicly committed to do much of this voluntarily, months before the export rule existed. That’s one reason cybersecurity experts were skeptical of the restrictions in the first place. To them, the ban seemed less like a security solution and more like leverage, a way for the Trump administration to punish Anthropic for its executives’ public criticism of how the government and the president’s political opponents might use the technology.

Mythos was originally made available to a select group of organizations starting in April to address concerns about its ability to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities, while a version called Fable was released to the public in June with additional security measures.

However, as Asian AI companies began releasing their own AI models approaching Mythos-level capabilities – including Fugu and Tulongfeng – the US government was under pressure to relax restrictions on Anthropic to ensure US AI could compete globally.

Last week, Lutnick authorized Mythos to be released to select clients approved by the White House. OpenAI’s latest models have also been released to a group of organizations approved by the Trump team, rather than to the public.

The Trump administration’s erratic approach to AI policymaking has given companies across the industry little clarity about what will determine future model releases. An executive order issued in June indicating a desire to review models before release was criticized by influential analysts like Dean W. Ball, who recently took up a policy position at OpenAI.