Anthropic International Business Lead: Mythos and Fable 5 Access Could Be Restored Within Days
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Anthropic's head of international told reporters in Seoul that Mythos and Fable 5 — blocked after a White House security directive — should be restored within days, but export-control questions hijacked what was meant to be a Korea expansion announcement.
What actually happened?
The White House issued a directive citing security risks, restricting foreign nationals' access to Anthropic's two frontier AI models — Mythos and Fable 5.
Anthropic then blocked both models inside and outside the U.S., cutting off all users.
This means → this was not a technical outage but a government-ordered full shutdown — export-control logic, previously applied to chips, now extending to AI models themselves.
Why does Anthropic say "days, not weeks"?
International head Chris Ciauri told reporters: "We are very confident that in the coming days, these models will be available again."
Yet he and other executives declined to answer most follow-up questions about the shutdown, steering the conversation toward the Korean market.
In plain terms = Anthropic offered optimism but did not explain the basis for it — the source of its confidence remains undisclosed.
What is Project Glasswing, and why does it matter here?
Project Glasswing is Anthropic's cybersecurity programme — a gated-access framework that opens Mythos only to vetted entities, designed to manage the model's potentially destructive capabilities.
It currently has roughly 150 partners, including Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. Korean participants include Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and SK Telecom.
This means → Korea's biggest tech firms are already embedded in Anthropic's trusted network, so this shutdown hits them directly and immediately.
Why is Korea at the centre of the storm?
The *Washington Post* reported that a Korean telecom company with access to Claude Mythos triggered the U.S. directive due to suspected links to China.
The report did not name the company, but the pool of Korean telecoms inside Glasswing is small — the field of candidates is narrow.
This reflects a pattern: AI-model export controls are replicating the logic of chip controls — "links to China" is now the key variable that triggers a lockdown.
What is Anthropic actually doing in Korea?
Korea country head Choi Ki-young said the Korean user base is growing, with usage ranking 12th globally, spanning developers and graphic designers.
Ciauri called Korea one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide and said Anthropic is building a local team across business, technical, policy, and operations roles.
In plain terms = Anthropic is doubling down on Korea even as the shutdown controversy unfolds — the tension between expansion plans and security controls is the real story of this press conference.
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