Z.ai Releases GLM 5.2 as US Restricts Anthropic Models

The US Commerce Department directed Anthropic on June 12, 2026 to suspend all access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for foreign nationals worldwide, citing a possible jailbreak of the models' safeguards; Anthropic disabled both models globally the next day rather than build a US-only version. Chinese lab Z.ai released its open-weight GLM-5.2 model under an MIT license that same day, explicitly framing the launch as proof that open weights cannot be pulled back once downloaded. The US lifted the export controls by July 1 and Fable 5 returned globally, but the relaunch triggered fresh controversy: developers found an internal tag quietly routing some requests to the cheaper Opus 4.8 without disclosure, reviving trust concerns even as GLM-5.2 keeps gaining traction with cost-conscious US enterprise users.