The US banned Anthropic’s Fable 5 release, but the numbers don’t seem to care

The US government forced Anthropic to pull its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models over national security concerns after Amazon researchers found a way to bypass Fable 5's guardrails. Cybersecurity researchers signed an open letter calling the ban dangerous, while data suggests the move may accidentally benefit Anthropic's sales and IPO prospects.

Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/12/anthropics-safety-warnings-may-have-just-backfired-the-government-has-pulled-the-plug-on-its-most-powerful-ai/ , Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails. Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/15/cybersecurity-vets-protest-dangerous-us-government-ban-on-anthropics-most-powerful-models/ calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is this a genuine security concern, or just the latest chapter in a messy relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration? On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity https://techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity/ podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan unpack what the ban means for developers building on Anthropic’s platform and for anyone watching the IPO, why it might accidentally be good for the company https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/16/anthropics-latest-feud-with-the-trump-admin-may-actually-help-it-sales-data-suggests/ , and more of the week’s headlines. Listen to the full episode to hear more about: - Why the UK’s social media ban https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/15/uk-unveils-sweeping-social-media-ban-for-users-under-16/ for users under 16 might be the lesser of two evils - What the SpaceX-Cursor acquisition https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/16/spacex-to-acquire-cursor-for-60b-in-stock-days-after-blockbuster-ipo/ tells us about xAI’s strategy and its gaps Jeff Bezos’s $12B bet on physical AI https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/11/jeff-bezoss-prometheus-raises-12b-to-build-an-artificial-general-engineer-for-the-physical-world/ with Prometheus, the startup trying to build an “artificial engineer” Subscribe to Equity on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TechCrunch , Apple Podcasts https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780 , Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity , Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?si=rZDFHv2sQUul g94iCRgpQ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X https://twitter.com/EquityPod and Threads https://www.threads.net/@equitypod , at @EquityPod.