According to Bloomberg, a U.S. AI startup named Legion has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that the U.S. government ordered Anthropic to stop providing its most advanced AI models to foreign citizens, which instantly deprived Legion's development team of core tools.
Canadian developers were "cut off altogether," company says loss is "life or death"
This lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington. Less than two weeks ago, Anthropic closed access to its most advanced AI models, Fable5 and Mythos5, in compliance with export control regulations issued by the Trump administration. Legion is an AI startup that provides litigation tools for lawyers, based in the United States, but its software development team includes Canadian employees working within Canada.
In its complaint, Legion used strong language, stating that Anthropic's cutoff of access to the Fable5 model dealt a "immediate, irreversible, and life-threatening" blow to the company. The company suddenly lost the latest tools its core development work relied on, and engineers were unable to work normally. Legion emphasized that the AI industry is extremely competitive, with rapid development measured in days, and any day's delay means an irrevocable loss of competitive advantage. "Every day this order remains in effect disrupts product development and daily operations, weakening the company's ability to survive in an industry heavily dependent on continuous access to the most advanced models."
Anthropic: Thanking the government for its efforts to resolve
The defendants in this case include U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo. She had explicitly warned in a letter to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei that Anthropic must obtain government approval before exporting or providing Fable5 and Mythos5 models to foreign citizens anywhere outside the United States.
Anthropic's spokesperson said in a statement that the company "thanks the government" for its efforts to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and has always been committed to working with the government to protect critical infrastructure and ensure the United States maintains a leading position in AI. As of the time of writing, the White House, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and Legion have not responded to requests for comment.
