After a rollercoaster negotiation process with the Trump administration that dragged on for two weeks, Anthropic’s Mythos 5 is back in action — at least, somewhat, for a select group of organizations, according to a letter from the government to Anthropic that was viewed The Verge. The Myth 5, however – the public-facing model of the Mythos-class – appears to be still in limbo, with no apparent timeline for a release agreement.
The letter, dated June 26 and sent by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to Anthropic founder Tom Brown, who recently led negotiations, says there has been a “review of licensing requirements” based on the fact that Anthropic has recently “worked with the US government to address the risks” associated with Mythos 5 and Fable 5.
Anthropic spokeswoman Danielle Ghiglieri told The Verge in a statement that the company “received notification from the US government that Mythos 5, our most robust cybersecurity model, could be redeployed to a small group of cyber defenders and infrastructure providers.” He added, “We are working to provide a set of authorized providers and restore their access to Mythos 5 as soon as possible. We are pleased to see this progress and continue to work with the government to expand access to Mythos 5 and make Fable 5 available for general use again.”
The US government did not lift the export control order that came to Anthropic two weeks ago, which prevented any foreign person from accessing any model (including Anthropic employees). Instead, the government made an exception to Mythos 5, authorizing a select group of organizations to access the same approach as OpenAI’s GPT-5.6, which was announced earlier today. Under this exception, Anthropic employees who are not US citizens again members of authorized organizations who are not US citizens have all been greenlit to access Mythos 5, according to the letter.
“These efforts have produced significant progress,” Lutnick wrote. “Furthermore, Anthropic is committed to working with the US government on policies and standards and their issuance [Mythos-class models]. Because of this progress … I have decided that there are appropriate safeguards to allow certain trusted colleagues access to the Claude Mythos 5 Model.”
Pressure has been building on the Trump administration to make changes in each of the jurisdictional jurisdictions it recently adopted, especially as the cybersecurity-focused models competing with Anthropic were getting better and better — and even moving into other cybersecurity-focused brands. Pressure is also building on the US AI industry, especially over fears of AI advances that China could make while top US AI labs are sidelined. Also, there was the fact that the top departments of the US government, such as the National Security Agency, had lost access to Mythos 5.
Now, Anthropic has the same deal that OpenAI has: Release the model in a limited preview setting, only for authorized organizations, such as trusted businesses and the US government itself. Both AI labs hope that more mainstream availability is coming soon, both for corporate commercials and public access (like Anthropic’s Fable 5), but ultimately it will be up to the Trump administration. Although many have called for the regulation of AI, including the AI labs themselves, the current consensus among some technology leaders is that two weeks ago it was not the way to do it.
In fact, OpenAI wrote on the company’s GPT-5.6 blog, “We do not believe that this type of government access process should be automated for the long term. It maintains the best tools from users, developers, businesses, Internet defenders, and global partners who need them. We are taking this temporary step because we believe it is the most powerful way to have a wider availability while improving the Internet’s ongoing work and ordering a repeat program.” of Cyberwork to release future models.
Lutnick wrote in his letter to Anthropic, “All other requirements of the June 12 letter remain in effect until further notice.” He added, “I reserve the right to re-evaluate and adjust the scope of the license requirements [Mythos 5 and Fable 5]if circumstances change.”
