Why did US ban Fable 5, Mythos AI for Indians and foreigners? SK Telecom likely reason

According to a new report, a South Korean telecom company may have played a role in the US government's decision to block access to Anthropic's most powerful models, Mythos and Fable. Here's what happened.

In Short

• US government ordered Anthopric to restrict access to Mythos and Fable
• A Wired report claims SK Telecom's access to Anthropic's Mythos model may have influenced the decision
• The restrictions affect foreign nationals worldwide, including India

The US government asked Anthropic to suspend access to its advanced AI models, Mythos and Fable, last week. But what led to the decision? According to a new report, one factor may have been a South Korean telecom giant.

According to a report by Wired, South Korea’s SK Telecom's access to Anthropic's powerful Mythos model may have contributed to Washington's decision to suspend foreign access to both Mythos and Fable.
The report suggests that, days before Anthropic took its advanced AI models offline, the White House asked the company to revoke SK Telecom's access to Claude Mythos. US officials were reportedly concerned about what they described as the South Korean telecom firm's alleged ties to China. Anthropic is said to have complied with the request immediately.

The move comes amid growing scrutiny of frontier AI systems and concerns about who should be allowed access to technologies capable of advanced cybersecurity research. Mythos is Anthropic's most powerful model and was made available only to a limited group of trusted organisations through a programme called Project Glasswing. Earlier this month, Anthropic expanded access to roughly 150 organisations across more than 15 countries, including SK Telecom, Samsung Electronics and South Korea's Korea Internet & Security Agency.

Amazon also reportedly pushed for restrictions

According to Wired, concerns over SK Telecom's access were compounded by separate warnings raised by Amazon. Researchers at the cloud giant reportedly found ways to bypass some safeguards built into Fable 5, a public version of Mythos released on June 9. The researchers argued that these weaknesses could potentially expose some of Mythos' advanced cyber capabilities. Anthropic and external cybersecurity experts reportedly maintained that such risks were not unique to Claude models.

The combination of the SK Telecom dispute and the concerns raised over Fable 5 appears to have convinced the White House that Anthropic could not sufficiently safeguard its most advanced AI technology. On June 12, Anthropic announced that the US government had ordered the suspension of access to Mythos 5 and Fable 5 for foreign nationals under national security authorities.
Rather than limiting access based on nationality, Anthropic decided to disable access to the models entirely. The restriction affects foreign nationals both outside and inside the United States, including immigrants and foreign employees working at Anthropic. The company has since said it is in discussions with the US government to restore access.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom is also one of Anthropic's strategic partners and invested $100 million in the AI company in 2023 as part of a broader collaboration to develop telecom-focused AI systems. While SK Telecom itself has limited operations in China, it is part of the larger SK Group conglomerate, whose affiliates have business interests in the country. According to its annual report, SK Telecom generated about $1.9 million in revenue from China in 2024 and employed seven people there.

Note that neither Anthropic nor the White House has publicly confirmed that SK Telecom directly triggered the restrictions. However, the report suggests that scrutiny over the Korean telecom giant's access, combined with concerns over model safeguards, helped shape one of the most significant AI export-control decisions seen so far.

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