Switched Off by Washington: The 19 Days the World’s Smartest AI Went Dark

By the AI Boom Team | Published 1 July 2026 AI export controls stopped being a theory this June. Three days after launching its most powerful models, Anthropic was ordered by the US government to cut off foreign access. Because it could not check every user’s nationality, it switched the models off for everyone. Access returned today, 1 July.

What happened, day by day

• 9 June: Anthropic releases Claude Fable 5, a public model with extra safety guardrails, and Claude Mythos 5, a restricted version of the same underlying model.
• 12 June: the US Commerce Department issues an export control directive citing national security. It bars access by any foreign national, inside or outside the US, including Anthropic’s own staff. The company says it understood the concern to be a possible way of “jailbreaking” Fable 5.
• Same evening: Anthropic disables both models for all customers. Its other models keep running. It calls the order a misunderstanding, in its official statement.
• Late June: after joint work on cyber risks, Mythos is cleared for selected government-approved organisations.
• 30 June: the Commerce Department lifts the controls, as CNN reported.
• 1 July: access is restored.

Why AI export controls matter now

Export controls usually stop physical goods, such as advanced chips, leaving a country. Here, a government used them to pull a live software service from customers worldwide. Lawyers at Greenberg Traurig described it as an escalation in how the US uses these powers. The ripple was wide. Businesses reaching the models through cloud platforms lost access too, not just direct customers. Washington framed the move as national security. Anthropic saw it as a mistake that could be fixed. Either way, the lesson for users is the same.

Five lessons for UK businesses

• Have a plan B. Any AI model can vanish overnight, so know which alternative you would switch to.
• Know what you run on. Ask suppliers which AI models sit inside the tools you pay for.
• Read the small print. Check contracts for what happens if a regulator forces a shutdown.
• Write it down. Add AI outages to your AI policy. Our free usage policy template is a good start.
• Build in stages. Our 12-week AI rollout plan keeps you from betting everything on one tool.

Want to understand how AI is changing business, in plain English? Read Get AI Before It Gets You by the AI Boom team, or get in touch at hello@aiboom.uk. © aiboom.uk