The shutdown lasted roughly three weeks. Anthropic launched the models in early June, received the export-control order on June 12, and took them offline immediately. The Commerce Department lifted restrictions on June 30 after Anthropic strengthened its safety guardrails, and access was restored following those modifications. The specific technical changes required remain unclear.
This episode establishes a precedent for how U.S. government can control frontier AI distribution through export restrictions tied to nationality. Attorneys should monitor whether this approach becomes standard practice and what compliance obligations it creates for AI developers. The underlying tension—between government control over advanced systems and the practical difficulty of enforcing nationality-based access restrictions—will likely shape future AI governance policy and export law.