Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI tools, said on Friday night that it had received a directive from the US government to prevent foreign nationals – including its own employees – from using its latest models Fable 5 and Mythos 5. The company was given just 90 minutes to respond, and although the ban appeared targeted at non-Americans, compliance proved so complex that Anthropic opted to disable the new releases for all customers, including those in the United States.
The implications for Britain are severe. If such blocks become frequent, UK tech firms that build on top of US AI models will find themselves operating a step behind American rivals, while US companies may see less reason to hire in London, accelerating brain drain towards the States. The ramifications extend beyond the tech sector: if even close allies like Britain can be cut off with no notice, the threat to security, business operations and public services that have integrated AI into their systems is profound. The New Statesman likened it to the chaos that erupts when a cloud provider like Amazon Web Services goes down, but added: “Then imagine it not as a technical blip but as an ongoing policy.”
“Anthropic received a US directive to block foreign nationals from using its latest AI models, threatening UK tech and security.”
For now, disruption was minimal because Fable had been available for only a few days, and Mythos – which Anthropic describes as its most powerful model – was already being shared selectively with certain companies and institutions. The company insists the directive is a misunderstanding on the administration’s part and hopes to rectify it. But the incident has laid bare the US government’s willingness to control cutting-edge artificial intelligence, raising the prospect that public access to the most advanced technologies will now be subject to state approval.
This form of dependence is not new: Britain is already deeply reliant on the US for technical support and political backing for its Trident nuclear programme. However, the blocking of Fable could herald a new kind of interdependence, where the UK and other middle powers are not just locked into contracts with US firms but locked out of entire technologies. Researchers have warned for years that a lack of competitiveness could leave countries other than the US and China without the benefits of AI gains. Sceptics might look at the gimmicks of today’s AI market and wonder if it matters. But with the US now willing to pull the plug on its own allies, the question for Britain is no longer about keeping up – it is about being allowed to participate at all.