Anthropic's Mythos models still offline after 2 weeks of talks with Trump administration

What happened

Anthropic took its Mythos-class and Fable 5 models offline following a June 12th Trump administration export control order banning access by any foreign national due to security concerns. Two weeks of high-intensity negotiations have produced no resolution, and the company says there is no news to share.

Why it matters

Mythos models were supposed to boost Anthropic's revenue ahead of an IPO, with input tokens priced at double the cost of lower-powered alternatives. The prolonged shutdown also signals the US government is willing to lock down American AI systems it deems risky, creating uncertainty for other companies like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft—and potentially opening space for non-American AI systems globally.

What to watch

The impasse stems partly from a lack of clear framework for applying export controls to AI systems, and a reported vulnerability in Fable 5 (flagged by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy) that some cybersecurity experts say was overblown. Anthropic cofounder Tom Brown and public policy chief Sarah Heck are now leading talks, but progress remains unclear.