U.S. imposes export controls on Anthropic AI models over security concerns
The U.S. Trump administration imposed export controls on Anthropic's advanced AI models Mithos 5 and Fable 5 after discovering that a South Korean telecommunications company with suspected ties to China was granted early access. Anthropic revoked the access after the disclosure, but the incident undermined government confidence in the company's security practices.
What happened
Anthropic submitted a list of 111 organizations approved to access the Mithos 5 AI model before its official release through the Project Glasswing initiative. The Trump administration reviewed and approved the list weeks before June 16, 2026.
Anthropic later disclosed that approximately 50 additional organizations had been granted access to the model but did not initially reveal their identities. During a subsequent review, U.S. government officials identified a South Korean telecommunications company with suspected ties to China on the access list.
Anthropic revoked the South Korean telecommunications company's access shortly after the discovery. On June 12, 2026, the Trump administration announced export control guidelines blocking foreign individuals and institutions from accessing Mithos 5 and Fable 5, and Anthropic immediately suspended access for all users.
Reported impact
The discovery of access granted to an entity with suspected China ties undermined U.S. government trust in Anthropic's ability to protect sensitive technology, according to officials cited by the Washington Post.
Amazon reported security vulnerabilities in Anthropic's new models, which was cited as a contributing factor in the government's decision to impose export controls.
Index analysis
Project Glasswing was established by Anthropic to allow verified companies and institutions to preemptively access the Mithos model to identify and defend against software vulnerabilities before the system's official release.
Governance controls
The U.S. government required Anthropic to submit lists of approved users for access to Mithos 5 before release and reviewal the identities of access recipients.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.