New Delhi, June 15 -- The abrupt withdrawal of Anthropic's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) model Fable 5 has rattled Indian startups that rely on foreign large language models (LLMs), raising concerns that access to critical AI infrastructure could be disrupted by decisions beyond their control.

Fable 5 was withdrawn for foreign nationals after the US government directed Anthropic to suspend access to the model, citing national security concerns, although the company disputed the severity of the issue. Industry executives said it was the first known instance of an AI model being subjected to export controls, which had previously been focused on graphic processing units (GPUs) and advanced semiconductor chips.

The incident has shar...