Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that Washington’s decision to restrict Anthropic’s newest AI models highlights the risks of depending too heavily on a small number of American providers. “Nobody has done anything wrong in the situation. But we will have done something wrong if we just accept this, don’t take the lesson, don’t build out and diversify,” Carney told Fortune. On June 12, Anthropic confirmed that it had taken its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 AI models offline to comply with a directive from the Trump administration. The order prevents the foreign nationals from accessing the company’s most advanced AI systems, making the US government’s most significant step yet in restricting frontier AI exports. Anthropic release Fable 5 widely last week, whereas Mythos 5 remained tightly controlled due to cybersecurity concerns. The AI giant described Mythos as “strikingly capable,” warning it could surpass human experts in identifying and exploiting computer vulnerabilities.
Mark Carney’s push for diversification
Carney made his remarks in Ireland ahead of the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, where AI is expected to be a major topic of discussion. He linked the U.S. restrictions to Canada’s broader push to diversify trade and technology, noting that more than 70% of Canada’s exports currently go to the U.S. His government has set a goal of doubling non-US exports over the next decade. “You’ll hear me say this over and over again. It is never a good idea to have one option,” Carney said, adding that the AI ban should serve as a wake-up call for governments and businesses to broaden their technology partnerships.Carney has no bilateral meeting scheduled with President Trump at the G7, despite the USMCA trade agreement being up for renewal. Instead, discussions will take place among Canada’s trade negotiators and US officials in Evian. Carney emphasized that while no “mission accomplished banner” will emerge from the summit, the talks are critical given the complexity of AI governance and trade relations.
Ban on Fable 5: Anthropic received a call from the government
On Friday, June 12, AI giant Anthropic was instructed to roll back the release of its most advanced AI models including Fable 5 and Mythos by the Trump administration. According to a report by Axios, the Trump administration asked Anthropic for the roll back after the officials cited a ‘national security threat’. As per the Axios report, Anthropic received a call at 1 pm ET giving just 90 minutes to comply before the new licensing controls would be imposed. Anthropic had already worked with the government on pre-release testing of Fable and received explicit approval to deploy the model. However, the sudden reversal left the executives scrambling. “We immediately sought to understand the specific nature of the threat so we could remediate it,” an Anthropic source said, though officials held firm on the demand.By 5.30 pm ET, the Commerce Department issued a letter imposing restrictions on where the models could be used and by whom.This move of the Trump administration underscores the government’s rapid response to warnings from Amazon and other companies about the capabilities of frontier AI systems.
