THE SWELL #22
SAIL Weekly Digest June 15–19 | Issue #22
This week the government proved a frontier model can be switched off overnight. On June 12, Washington forced Anthropic to pull Fable and Mythos. By Monday, the shock had spread to open-source momentum, China policy, AI governance, and the case for an IPO.
SAIL’s authors chased the aftershocks from every shore.
The Week in AI
Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 went dark on June 12 after a Commerce Department export-control directive barred their use by any foreign national — inside or outside the US — reportedly triggered by Amazon researchers jailbreaking Fable’s cyber guardrails; Anthropic pulled both models for everyone and is now lobbying Washington to reverse it.
Z.ai released GLM-5.2, an MIT-licensed open-weight model that briefly claimed the top frontend-coding spot — and its Hong Kong–listed shares jumped more than 30% as the Fable shutdown turned attention toward cheaper Chinese open weights.
OpenAI’s finances surfaced — roughly $34B spent in 2025 against about $13B in revenue — as both it and Anthropic march toward IPOs, while Satya Nadella warned companies against ceding control to a handful of models that consume everything they touch.
This Week from SAIL Authors
Washington, China, and the New Controls
The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic — Timothy B. Lee maps the intra-administration fight over the export ban, and why escaping it won’t be easy for Anthropic. — Understanding AI
Sen. Slotkin: NDAA, AI guardrails, and banning China’s cars — Jordan Schneider talks with Sen. Elissa Slotkin on the defense bill, AI guardrails, and shutting out Chinese vehicles. — ChinaTalk
Why Do (Some) Chinese AI Labs Distill? — Kevin Xu argues only a handful of Chinese labs distill, the “China steals” narrative is lazy, and the Mythos/Fable lockdown changes little. — Interconnected
Inside the Models
Frontier post-training recipe review with Finbarr Timbers — Nathan Lambert and Finbarr Timbers trace the evolution of frontier post-training recipes, from InstructGPT to today’s open models. — Interconnects
Culture and Markets
the old world is dying — Jasmine Sun’s opinionated advice for the class of 2026, graduating straight into the AI transition. — Jasmi.News
Data to start your week — Azeem Azhar, Marija Gavrilov, and Hannah Petrovic on AI job cuts, China’s nuclear lead, and GLP-1s. — Exponential View
Bonus: The Claude Fable Fiasco
Anthropic’s Fable is the most locked-down public model we’ve ever seen — Kai Williams details how Anthropic decides which questions are too dangerous for Claude to answer. — Understanding AI
Welcome to the AGI era of AI governance — Nathan Lambert calls the forced shutdown the starting gun for a new, one-way era of AI governance. — Interconnects
Exponential View #578: Fable & time to pause AI — Azeem Azhar on the shutdown and whether the moment argues for a pause. — Exponential View
Emergency Pod: Claude Fable — Jordan Schneider and Chris McGuire on a chaotic two weeks in AI policy. — ChinaTalk
And Kevin Xu’s distillation piece (above) makes the contrarian case that the Mythos/Fable drama matters far less for China than the headlines suggest.
Full Library
Access the complete, searchable archive of SAIL Media in our Sitemap.
Why Do (Some) Chinese AI Labs Distill? — Kevin Xu | Interconnected
Frontier post-training recipe review with Finbarr Timbers — Nathan Lambert | Interconnects
Emergency Pod: Claude Fable — Jordan Schneider | ChinaTalk
Sen. Slotkin: NDAA, AI guardrails, and banning China’s cars — Jordan Schneider | ChinaTalk
Welcome to the AGI era of AI governance — Nathan Lambert | Interconnects
Exponential View #578: Fable & time to pause AI — Azeem Azhar | Exponential View
Anthropic’s Fable is the most locked-down public model we’ve ever seen — Kai Williams | Understanding AI
The MAGA power struggle that could decide the fate of Anthropic — Timothy B. Lee | Understanding AI
the old world is dying — Jasmine Sun | Jasmi.News
Data to start your week — Azeem Azhar | Exponential View
