Export Restrictions Lifted
The U.S. Department of Commerce has officially lifted export restrictions on Anthropic Fable 5, a safety tuned version of the company advanced Mythos model. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced the decision following a safety review. Fable 5 was originally designed with additional safeguards to make it suitable for broader public use, while the more powerful Mythos model, known for its exceptional cybersecurity capabilities, remains limited to approved partners.
Earlier this month, Anthropic paused client access to both Mythos and Fable after the government imposed an export ban. The ban required the company to suspend use by foreign nationals, including its own employees, after a trusted partner discovered a jailbreak that could bypass Fable protections and unlock Mythos level capabilities. Anthropic acknowledged that such jailbreaks were relatively simple and that similar vulnerabilities exist in other publicly available models.
Regulatory Context
Since the export restrictions were enacted, Anthropic has been in continuous negotiations with the Department of Commerce. Last week, the agency permitted the company to release Mythos to a select group of government approved entities. The model advanced capabilities, which experts warn could be used to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed, had previously alarmed both U.S. officials and Wall Street.
The episode highlights the lack of a cohesive regulatory framework for artificial intelligence. In a parallel move, the White House asked OpenAI to limit the release of its forthcoming GPT 5.6 model to a small number of government approved partners. OpenAI responded that it does not believe such a government access process should become a permanent arrangement.
Source: Mezha