Can Europe Afford to Rent Its Intelligence?
On 12 June 2026, the US government ordered Anthropic to suspend foreign-national access to its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5 . Because Anthropic could not verify every user’s nationality in real time, it disabled both models for everyone. The European Commission said it was assessing the implications and practical consequences for European users; previously scheduled Commission and ENISA meetings with Anthropic continued. The blanket shutdown did not last. The broad export controls were lifted on 30 June, Fable 5 returned globally on 1 July, and access to Mythos 5 initially resumed only for a set of approved US organisations while Anthropic coordinated with the US government over broader domestic and international access. By September, Fable 5.1 was generally available while Mythos 5.1 remained restricted to vetted access and, for the model itself, to a set of US organisations . The episode was temporary, but that does not make it trivial. It established that access to an i...