Anthropic says US has lifted export controls on Fable and Mythos AI models after security fears

Anthropic says the US government has lifted an export ban on its powerful Mythos and Fable systems. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Anthropic says the US government has lifted an export ban on its powerful Mythos and Fable systems. Photograph: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images Anthropic says US has lifted export controls on Fable and Mythos AI models after security fears AI company was forced last month to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals Business live – latest updates Anthropic has restored customer access to its powerful newest AI model, Fable, after a more than two-week blackout resulting from US government safety concerns that it could be abused to enable serious cyber-attacks. The San Francisco company said export controls had been lifted, citing a social media post from the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, in which he said: “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.” Three days after Claude Fable 5 was launched on 9 June, the US government ordered Anthropic to immediately restrict access to it and a related model, Claude Mythos 5, banning their use by foreign nationals, whether inside or outside the US. Washington feared the powerful AIs could be used to mount devastating cyber-attacks by foreign adversaries. On ‌Friday the US government allowed Anthropic to release Mythos 5, to some “trusted” US organisations, partly reversing the order. Mythos was only released to a small number of trusted partners for use in defensive cybersecurity. The Anthropic ‘Fable’ saga proves: we have opened the AI Pandora’s box. What now? | Nathan E Sanders and Bruce Schneier Read more Lutnick said in a letter to Anthropic, seen by Reuters: “Anthropic has agreed to proactively detect and address security ​risks associated with the models; to work diligently with the US government on protocols and standards and releases for Mythos, Fable, and future models; and to inform the US government of any malicious activity.” The ban was seen as a toughening in the White House’s stance towards the regulation of US AI companies, which had previously emphasised a light touch underpinned by a desire to beat China in the supposed race to AI dominance. The US government acted after it became aware of a report in which Amazon researchers found a method of bypassing Fable 5’s safeguards to make it find software vulnerabilities, showing how such a weakness could be exploited – potentially by a malign cyber-attacker. Anthropic responded to the export control by pulling the plug entirely, but it said it has now increased safeguards. It said in a blogpost: “Researchers from the US Department of Commerce’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) have tested both our prior and new safeguards and agree that they are extraordinarily strong.” Anthropic