U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Anthropic’s Most Powerful A.I. Models

The Commerce Department lifted restrictions on all of Anthropic’s artificial intelligence models on Tuesday, allowing the company to bring its most powerful A.I. technologies back online, according to a letter from the government to the company that was viewed by The New York Times.

In the letter, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Anthropic that it would no longer need a license for exports or in-country transfers of its Claude Mythos and Claude Fable A.I. models, reversing an order issued on June 12.

“Anthropic has taken steps in close coordination with the U.S. government to address the risks associated with Claude Mythos 5 and Claude Fable 5,” Mr. Lutnick wrote.

The move was the latest chapter in Anthropic’s often prickly relationship with the federal government and is set to de-escalate their feud, paving the way for the company to largely return to business as usual. Citing national security, the Commerce Department had initially ordered Anthropic to suspend access to its latest A.I. models for all foreign nationals.

Those controls raised questions about how hands-on the Trump administration might be with the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry. They also could have caused significant problems for technology development at Anthropic, which along with OpenAI is among the world’s most influential A.I. companies. Mythos and Fable, which are powerful at identifying security flaws in software, are considered a significant improvement on earlier A.I. models.

The restrictions were the second time the Trump administration had targeted Anthropic, which is based in San Francisco. In March, after tense talks over how Anthropic’s A.I. could be used in warfare, the Pentagon labeled Anthropic an unacceptable supply chain risk, potentially limiting its use by federal agencies. Anthropic has sued the federal government over that designation.

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