This is part of what's being imposed on them from the US. They demanded that Fable only be offered to US citizens, not even non-US citizens within the United States (ie no geo-IP restriction).

I suspect they'll require it for Fable access.

And the government did it at 5:21pm on a Friday, giving them 90 minutes to comply or have the company be possibly shut down for illegal arms dealing.

They demanded that Anthropic require only US citizens have access to Fable, it had to be exclusively US citizens, not foreigners within the US either.

With that threat, I think this is Anthropic wanting to re-launch Fable, a product that they had already apparently nerfed to the point of near uselessness.

That said, I'd used Fable and it was genuinely better than Opus, was it 2x as good (as per the cost)- I'm not sure, but it was a genuinely better model that produced higher quality output.

I don't like this move at all, and I think it's like so many things the US has done in recent years.

Shutting down science institutions.
Shutting down large parts of the Dept of Education.
Pulling out of the WHO.
Removing access of Americans to necessary health care.
Reducing pollution standards.
Arresting foreigners indefinitely randomly.
Getting into wars with no clear strategy and shifting objectives.
Giving up in the war and handing your enemy everything they asked for plus a series of rewards.
Shifting the US economy towards a technology that is "controversial at best" but then threatening the very companies at the forefront with shutdown or possible jail time.

One might get the impression that leadership was working against the long term interests of the country...

@serge nothing new, feels like every major countries government I follow since birth ;)

They work towards their own & their friends bank accounts, the Elites just change the way they plunder us ever now and then if you ask me. Hopefully people will at some point say enough and stand united. Like if you travel & talk to people you reaallly notice how good the majority of people everywhere are and how few are evil!