Mythos and Fable are back.
The US Commerce Department officially lifted its export controls on both Anthropic models on Tuesday, clearing the way for Claude users to regain access to the frontier lab's most powerful AI.
In a letter to Anthropic seen by Reuters, Howard Lutnick, secretary of the US Commerce Department, said, "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 two models have been restricted since Jun 12, when the US imposed export controls that made it illegal for all foreign nationals, outside or inside the US, to access the technology.
Anthropic has been warning about the potential cybersecurity implications of Mythos since early April, when it released it to a limited set of companies to help them prepare, as part of an initiative called Project Glasswing.
US agencies were particularly concerned about Mythos being co-opted for military purposes by countries such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and others. The speed at which Mythos uncovers software vulnerabilities and can potentially arm bad actors for cyberattacks was at the heart of the concern.
Washington hasn't only picked on Anthropic. It also kept OpenAI from broadly releasing its GPT-5.6 model, leading OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to call it "bad news" on X. Altman said, "At the request of the US government, it is launching today in limited preview instead of the open access launch we were planning." That was despite the fact that GPT-5.6 has tested even stronger than Mythos in some benchmarks. There's no word yet on when the government will clear GPT-5.6 for general use.
Our Deeper View #
Perhaps the most notable outcome of the US government's standoff with Anthropic — and OpenAI now as well — is that it has resulted in a in promulgating these ever-powerful models. Such a to evaluate and prepare for the effects of the latest models had appeared highly unlikely. While leaders such as Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei have extolled the benefits of such a to assess safety, they've also made it clear they wouldn't do it unless other labs agree to a similar , because otherwise it wouldn't be effective. Will the staggered rollouts of Mythos and GPT-5.5 reset the expectations and norms for the way the most powerful frontier models are launched? If you are concerned about AI safety, that would be a win. The question would then shift to the who and the how of such a .