The record
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- On June 12, 2026, the US Commerce Department ordered Anthropic to block all foreign nationals from its two most advanced AI models, citing national security.
- Unable to verify every user's nationality quickly, Anthropic shut the Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models off worldwide.
- The department lifted the restrictions on June 30 only after Anthropic strengthened safety guardrails so much that the models' capabilities dropped sharply, with many routine tasks now failing.
- The episode marks the first use of export controls to restrict foreign access to an AI service and has raised questions about whether the government acted lawfully, while Anthropic chose to negotiate rather than challenge the order in court.
What to watch next
- Possible congressional action to clarify whether remote access to AI models counts as an export under the 2018 law.
- Whether other US AI companies face similar export-control letters or challenge them in court.
- How the court-stripping provision in the 2018 statute affects any legal challenges to such directives.
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