Anthropic suspended access to its newest AI models for foreign nationals following a US government directive, shocking the Indian tech industry. This has reignited debate in India about the need to develop domestic AI capabilities and invest in open-source alternatives.
Anthropic suspended access to its newest AI models (Fable 5 and Mythos 5) for all foreign nationals, including its own foreign employees, following a US government directive. The move directly impacts Indian businesses and developers.
India is the second-largest market for both Anthropic and OpenAI. Anthropic had recently partnered with Tata Consultancy Services to expand enterprise AI adoption in India. The US government action stems from security concerns, reportedly first flagged by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, with the White House privately criticizing Anthropic's handling of alleged jailbreak vulnerabilities.
The incident has reignited debate in India's tech sector about technological dependence on US frontier AI providers. Aakrit Vaish, founder of Indian AI venture platform Activate, said the decision "materially changes the way all of us should be thinking about sovereign AI in India." Indian startups are expected to increasingly turn to open-source models and reduce reliance on a small number of frontier AI providers.