The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued an export control directive on June 12 requiring Anthropic to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for any foreign national, whether located inside or outside the United States, including non-citizen Anthropic employees (Fortune, Nextgov). The directive arrived three days after the models publicly launched on June 9 (Fortune). Officials cited a reported technique to bypass Fable 5’s safety classifiers and access the advanced cybersecurity capabilities built into Mythos 5 - which can autonomously identify and exploit software vulnerabilities - as the basis for the restriction (Fortune). Unable to verify user nationality in real time, Anthropic disabled both models globally rather than attempting partial compliance (Anthropic). Anthropic characterized the jailbreak as narrow and limited to one specific scenario rather than a universal bypass of all safeguards, and said it is working toward restoring access (Fortune, Nextgov). Anthropic’s updated privacy policy, effective July 8, adds provisions for collecting government-issued identity documents and biometric data to verify citizenship (CIO, Cybernews); the anticipated system would restore access for verified U.S. citizens while international users remain blocked (CIO). Access to Claude Opus 4.8 and other existing Claude models was not affected by the directive (Fortune).
On June 18, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously to order six major U.S. grid operators - PJM Interconnection, Midcontinent Independent System Operator, Southwest Power Pool, California ISO, ISO New England, and the New York Independent System Operator - to expedite interconnection requests from AI data centers and other large electricity consumers (TechCrunch). Each operator has 30 days to file a report on available generating capacity and 60 days to defend or revise regional electricity rates, with data centers required to cover their own interconnection costs (TechCrunch). The orders follow pressure from the Department of Energy, which flagged interconnection delays as a threat to U.S. AI competitiveness and urged FERC to act (Tom’s Hardware).