The US government’s Anthropic models ban was never about an AI jailbreak

Photo: President Donald J. Trump attends UFC Freedom 250, the mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Sunday, June 14, 2026, on the South Lawn of the White House. Photo credit: Official White House photo by Daniel Torok via Flickr. US government work. Article by Zack Whittaker. TechCrunch – June 15, 2026.

The U.S. government’s enforcement letter to Anthropic, which effectively forced the company to pull its latest AI models offline just before the weekend, should be a wake-up call for any U.S. tech company — AI lab or otherwise. To catch you up on the news blitz: On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Commerce Department sent Anthropic a letter invoking an obscure export control directive that banned non-Americans, including Anthropic’s employees, from accessing Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing an unspecified national security concern. Anthropic said it believes the letter is related to a bypass of the model’s guardrails, but isn’t sure because the letter doesn’t provide specific details. The letter has not been made public. […]

Click here to view original web page at www.techcrunch.com

Related articles:

Gavin Newsom Says Trump DOJ Is Politically Targeting Him – Time

Trump hamstrings Republicans in Congress ahead of midterms | Opinion – USA Today

Why Trump is obsessed with exacting ‘retribution’ against E Jean Carroll – The Guardian

EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump has now threatened or investigated 20 authors who’ve written books critical of him. – Defiance News | Miles Taylor

Trump proposes putting political goals above objective criteria in deciding who gets government grants, from childcare to research to public safety – The Conversation