SAN FRANCISCO, July 2 -- Three weeks ago, the United States government decided that Anthropic's most capable AI model was too dangerous for the rest of the world to touch. On Tuesday, it decided the opposite, and the explanation for the reversal is more damaging to the original decision than the ban itself ever was to Anthropic.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security notified Anthropic that export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 had been lifted, and the company began restoring global access on Wednesday, July 1, across the Claude Platform, Claude.ai, Claude Code and Claude Cowork. NBC News reported Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick posted on X that his department had "worked closely with Anthropic to analyze an...