Trump Administration Forces AI Company to Pull Advanced Models in 90 Minutes

Emergency Government Intervention

In an unprecedented move that sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley, the Trump administration gave Anthropic 90 minutes on Friday to pull down its most powerful AI models before imposing a licensing regime on the company . Administration officials called Anthropic officials at 1:15 p.m. Friday and gave them 90 minutes to pull their most advanced models down, citing an undefined national security concern .

Anthropic had launched Fable 5 just three days earlier on June 9, billing it as the most capable publicly available AI model in the company's history . The company chose a third option nobody expected. It pulled the models entirely rather than implement rushed nationality-based restrictions that would have excluded foreign users.

At 5:21 p.m., Anthropic was notified that the Trump administration was imposing export controls that effectively forced the company to pull down its model, which consumers had just begun to have access to . The directive barred all foreign nationals—including Anthropic's own foreign-born employees—from accessing the technology.

Amazon's Warning Triggers Crisis

The dramatic intervention stemmed from Amazon calling administration officials Thursday night to share a report showing how they were able to jailbreak and access portions of Anthropic's powerful new Mythos model that pose a national security threat . The episode places Amazon in the extraordinary position of having triggered a government crackdown on the flagship product of its own largest AI investment .

Mythos is Anthropic's most capable AI model, one the company previewed in early April and has kept tightly restricted ever since because of what Anthropic described as its exceptional ability to find security vulnerabilities in software. According to Anthropic, Mythos identified flaws in every major operating system and web browser it tested .

Fable 5, released just three days ago, was Anthropic's answer to the obvious commercial pressure: a version of Mythos fitted with guardrails that block responses in high-risk areas like cybersecurity and biology, making it safe enough for general release . However, Amazon's report suggested these safeguards could be bypassed.

Industry Dispute Over Response

Anthropic's understanding is that the government believes it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or "jailbreaking" Fable 5. We believe this is a misunderstanding and are working to restore access as soon as possible . The government's response "seems way out of line with what's actually in the research report," said Luta Security CEO Katie Moussouris, who Anthropic shared the Amazon report with. Moussouris said the researchers were able to find security vulnerabilities by asking questions normal defenders would ask AI, which is exactly what the model was intended to do .

Several calls between Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and senior administration officials followed, during which Amodei argued the security bypass found by Amazon was narrow rather than a full jailbreak of the model's safeguards . No testers have yet been able to find a universal jailbreak—a jailbreak method that can very broadly bypass the model's safeguards, unblocking a wide range of cyber capabilities .

Broader Implications for AI Control

This represents a fundamental shift in how Washington approaches AI regulation. The previous posture, even under this same administration, leaned heavily on voluntary commitments from AI companies. That era appears to be over . An administration official told Axios that the government does not view other models on the market as posing the same national security risk because they do not exceed the capability level Mythos has reached, and that any future model crossing that threshold would need to go through the government before release .

The crisis escalates a months-long standoff between Anthropic and the Trump administration, which earlier this year designated the company a "supply chain risk" for Pentagon contractors after Anthropic declined to accept contract terms allowing its models to be used for "all lawful purposes" . The timing is particularly challenging for Anthropic, which had been widely expected to pursue an initial public offering later in 2026. A prolonged ban on its flagship models would complicate that timeline and raise questions about the regulatory risk premium for frontier AI companies .

What began as a routine product launch has become a defining moment for how the U.S. government will oversee the most advanced AI systems, setting precedents that will likely shape the industry's relationship with Washington for years to come.