The United States Commerce Department has authorized Anthropic to restore access to Claude Mythos 5 for more than 100 US companies and federal agencies. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick delivered the decision in a letter to Anthropic’s chief compute officer Tom Brown on June 26.
What changed
Lutnick’s letter stated he had “determined that appropriate safeguards are in place to permit certain trusted partners to access the Claude Mythos 5 Model.” The authorization covers organizations operating and defending critical infrastructure, and explicitly includes non-American employees at those organizations — meaning, for example, a UK-based employee at an authorized US firm can now use the model.
Anthropic confirmed it is “restoring access for these organizations quickly” and said it continues to work with the government to expand access further.
How the ban began
The restrictions took effect on June 12, when the Commerce Department ordered Anthropic to disable global access to both Mythos 5 and Fable 5 — its two most capable models. The move was triggered after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy alerted US officials to a reported jailbreak capable of bypassing the models’ safety guardrails, and after the White House raised concerns about China’s potential access to the systems.
Because Anthropic could not technically filter foreign nationals from its global user base in real time, the company complied by pulling both models offline for every customer worldwide.
What remains restricted
Friday’s authorization covered only Mythos 5. Fable 5, Anthropic’s most powerful model, remains offline for all users. General public access to both models has not been restored, and no timeline has been set for Fable 5. People familiar with the negotiations say talks on Fable 5 are ongoing.
Why it matters for Georgia
The June 12 global shutdown cut off access to Anthropic’s top models for developers, researchers, and companies everywhere, including Georgia. Friday’s partial lift applies only to vetted US institutions — meaning Georgian users and organizations remain unable to access Mythos 5 or Fable 5.
The episode illustrates a structural risk for countries building AI capabilities on API access to US-based frontier models: decisions made in Washington can instantly disrupt workflows around the world. For Georgia, which has committed $18.4 million in its 2026 state budget to AI research and is working to build a domestic AI ecosystem, the availability of frontier AI tools from abroad is not guaranteed. The current situation is a clear signal that access to open-weight models and local AI infrastructure matters.