Lutnick announced the agreement on X, saying, “Over the past two weeks, we have worked closely with Anthropic to analyze and approve Fable 5 to ensure alignment across the U.S. government and strengthen America’s leadership in AI.” Under the terms, Anthropic will address workarounds that researchers at Amazon used to evade safeguards for Fable 5, according to Lutnick. Amazon, a major Anthropic investor, has committed $13 billion to the company and could invest up to $20 billion more.
Talks were led by Anthropic’s Chief Compute Officer Tom Brown, who worked with the Commerce Department and other agencies to convince them the model is safe for public use, people familiar with the discussions said. Anthropic said it would begin restoring access Wednesday after what it described as an “unprecedented” shutdown for a leading U.S. model developer. “We’re grateful to our users for their patience, and to everyone who worked with us on redeploying,” the company said.
The government’s goal, administration officials said, is to address the vulnerability and implement a process to avoid similar issues in the future and improve communication. The Commerce Department is expected to formally lift the restrictions, people familiar with the matter said.
The June 12 order banned all foreign use of the models, including by foreign-born individuals working in the United States and some Anthropic researchers, forcing the company to shut off access for all users. The Commerce Department had given the company 90 minutes to disable Mythos and Fable, according to the New York Times. Late last week, the administration partially lifted restrictions on Mythos 5, restoring access for hundreds of clients after Anthropic agreed to place safeguards on its models.
The shutdown was the first major instance of the U.S. government forcing a leading AI company to take down a model, potentially benefiting competitors such as OpenAI, Google, and Elon Musk’s AI company. After more than a year of a laissez-faire approach, the White House has pivoted to involve cybersecurity and national-security experts in evaluating AI models, officials said.
President Trump recently signed an executive order laying out the new approach and asking companies to give the federal government access to their models 30 days before they are released. Trump praised Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei’s response to the administration’s concerns, telling Axios, “He responded very responsibly.” The two participated in a Group of Seven AI meeting in France while negotiations were ongoing, according to the report.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said on X, “The government and private sector have worked together in a way we have never seen before and this foundation of America first is unprecedented.” She added, “Our shared priority remains: get the best tech deployed as quickly and safely as possible.”
Earlier this year, Trump called Anthropic a “radical-left, woke company” after the Pentagon designated the company a supply-chain risk over disagreements about guardrails for military use of AI. That designation prompted multiple lawsuits from Anthropic.
AI analysts said the administration’s recent moves have “thrown the model approval process into chaos.” The agreement is expected to involve the government testing unit, the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, which already performs testing and has long-standing relationships with tech companies. Industry executives and administration officials said some uncertainty will be resolved after the executive order is implemented.
The agreement could also relieve pressure on Amazon, which flagged Fable vulnerabilities to the government for security reasons. Amazon has invested $13 billion in Anthropic and could invest $20 billion more. Anthropic was recently valued at $965 billion and is preparing for an initial public offering alongside OpenAI.