Debasis Mohapatra
Bengaluru, 13 June 2026
Anthropic has cut access of its new AI models ‘Fable 5’ and ‘Mythos 5’ to foreign nationals, sending shockwaves across tech community and governments.
In a blogpost, the AI giant- Anthropic said government agencies had instructed it to prevent all foreign nationals from accessing the AI models Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns. As per the US government’s order, no foreign national and even those foreign employees working for Anthropic will not get access to these cutting-edge AI models.
This move has several repercussions for a country like India, whose IT sector is deeply engaged with the US tech giants. Moreover, several AI and ML experts working in the US tech giants are Indians.
- Wake-up call for India: Despite a country of 1.4 billion people, Indian citizens dependency on the US tech platforms is absolute. This is also true for new AI models, which are making waves in recent years. In this context, Zoho Founder- Sridhar Vembu wrote in X (the platform owned by American tech mogul, Elon Musk), “Globalization is dead and Bharat must find her own way ahead. Indians who still believe global markets will always remain open should wake up now.”
- India needs its own AI models: According to Vembu, Indian organisations should adopt smaller AI models, including Indian-developed and Chinese open-source alternatives, rather than depending on foreign providers. So, the IT lobby group in India, which advocates the country doesn’t need any LLM (Large Language Model), should be ignored and the government should start working on a mission mode to develop India’s own LLM model. Hearteningly, Sarvam AI and BharatGen are sovereign AI models, which being developed within the country. Experts are of the opinion that India should follow a Chinese model of developing its own LLM than relying on the US.
3. What will happen if tomorrow Google or Microsoft or any other US tech giants stop providing services in India?
The US decision to restrict access to cutting-edge AI platforms of Anthropic shows that the US government can cut any service to Indians at any point of time. Given the increasing divergence of interests between India and the US, India should be prepared for a situation when US turns completely hostile. Currently, India doesn’t have a mobile operating system and its dependence on Google’s Android is absolute. Similarly, the country also has high dependency on Microsoft’s Office suite.
In this perspective, India has to act on a war footing to make the country digitally sovereign, reducing its dependency on foreign nations.
