/Tech12h ago

Geth lead developer Péter Szilágyi argues Anthropic's Fable model restrictions on biology and cryptography represent corporate gatekeeping

Story Overview

Ethereum's longtime Geth maintainer is flagging Anthropic's new Claude Fable 5 as an early example of companies deciding which knowledge domains stay open, noting the model's new safeguards shunt biology and cryptography queries to an older version and thereby blunt its everyday usefulness.

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Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

The scary part about Anthorpic's Fable nerf is not that it refuses to answer biology or cryptography. It's that it foreshadows what's coming. A world where a couple companies decide what you can and cannot do. They're building a new ruling class and you're not in it...

1:05 AM · Jun 10, 2026 · 468.2K Views
Developer Impact

Limits now baked into the flagship release

Fable 5 routes certain queries through extra classifiers that trigger on under 5 percent of sessions, deliberately conservative on biology, chemistry, and cryptography so the model can ship to a wide audience while the unrestricted Mythos 5 stays with vetted partners only.

Open Question

Gatekeeping debate lands right at launch

Szilágyi and several high-profile engineers see the filters as a preview of concentrated control; Anthropic says it plans to tighten the biology and chemistry nets later, though no timeline or narrower criteria have been shared yet.

Sentiment

Many users agree Anthropic's model nerfs and safety restrictions enable corporate control over knowledge, while others dismiss the complaints as entitled and demand unrestricted open-source alternatives instead.

Pos
47.5%
Neg
52.5%
49 comments with sentiment.
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Yup, exactly this.

Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

The scary part about Anthorpic's Fable nerf is not that it refuses to answer biology or cryptography. It's that it foreshadows what's coming. A world where a couple companies decide what you can and cannot do. They're building a new ruling class and you're not in it...

8hViews 7.6KLikes 63Bookmarks 1
BOOKMARKS8LIKES152
Perry E. Metzger@perrymetzger

The thing Anthropic's repugnant and overbearing “safety controls” on their new model demonstrates, conclusively I think, is that if we allow one or two companies to control all AI research and development, we will also be giving those companies veto power over what thoughts we are allowed to think, what information we are allowed to know, what conversations we are allowed to have. The only solution to this is an open, fiercely competitive market where customers can freely choose to leave when a company behaves like this.

Anthropic has repeatedly sought various forms of regulatory capture during its history, attempting to use the law itself as a weapon to prevent competitors from entering the marketplace to allow it to seize sole control over AI R&D. We cannot afford to give such companies opportunities for regulatory capture. The only sure way to keep our society and our minds free is to prevent firms like this from getting their way with legislators. We must keep the marketplace for AI open, and not allowing regulations to be abused to gatekeep who may and may not compete.

4hViews 4.1KLikes 152Bookmarks 8
RETWEETS169
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

The scary part about Anthorpic's Fable nerf is not that it refuses to answer biology or cryptography. It's that it foreshadows what's coming. A world where a couple companies decide what you can and cannot do. They're building a new ruling class and you're not in it...

12hViews 468.2KLikes 10.3KBookmarks 1K
REPLIES9
Ali Ömer Horzum@aliomerhorzum

@peter_szilagyi @lex_node you are welcome to not use their product

it’s a for profit, and it’s entirely up to them to how much of their product they let their customers use

10hViews 2.1KLikes 17

💯 Exactly my point! People should understand that this is not about me or you not having access to biology, medicine, or math. It’s about them getting to decide who their “trusted” partner is. This notion of biosecurity issues is a total excuse or maybe ignorance of the science.

Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

The scary part about Anthorpic's Fable nerf is not that it refuses to answer biology or cryptography. It's that it foreshadows what's coming. A world where a couple companies decide what you can and cannot do. They're building a new ruling class and you're not in it...

6hViews 6.3KLikes 135Bookmarks 6
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@aliomerhorzum @lex_node Well, they were also welcome not to scrape the internet and steal all copyrighted material - rather build up their own knowledgebase - but they ignore that, didn't they?

So your reasoning does not stand.

10hViews 2KLikes 142
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@aliomerhorzum @lex_node I think it's fair game to train AI on *everything*, if then you provide it as a public good. Fine if they don't want to provide the infra, as long as they release the weights.

But take everything and give nothing back is a bad place to be and will lead to a lot of animosity imo.

9hViews 558Likes 51
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@aliomerhorzum @lex_node It was trained on copyrighted data, both from the internet and off internet. Their models were trained of theft. They don't get to claim ownership over it. That is my thesis.

9hViews 674Likes 49
Nicolas 🔺@nicolas_a4

@peter_szilagyi You're sheltering unauthorized open weight models, are you not?

11hViews 688Likes 33Bookmarks 1
Luca Dellanna@DellAnnaLuca

@peter_szilagyi As opposed to the world before, where everyone had immediate access to experts whom to ask biology and cryptography questions, I guess 🙄

8hViews 787Likes 11
Bismark@bismarkbuilds

@peter_szilagyi Very precise observation.

In the capitalistic sense this is how they intend it to turn out,unlike Elon's direction of course.

But thank God for China.

China is doing all it can to undermine this,

With ever more powerful and cheaper models.

8hViews 312Likes 1Bookmarks 2
Premek@pe_remek

@peter_szilagyi @lex_node But those companies must obey government law rrright? And that government is democratically elected by people rrright?

10hViews 519Likes 7
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@octo_bar The US designated cryptography as a weapon for a long time. Turned out that was stupid idea and using it everywhere is better, even with the occasional misuse.

10hViews 1.3KLikes 14
Ali Ömer Horzum@aliomerhorzum

@peter_szilagyi @lex_node literally every model (including open source models) are trained through data available on the internet

how does this validate your thesis?

anthropic models are not public goods

10hViews 686Likes 5
Zack Voell@zackvoell

@peter_szilagyi This AI safetyism is getting really fucking annoying.

And most people just laugh and meme it.

6hViews 96Likes 13
Gene@genejchan

@peter_szilagyi Elon won't let that happen. This is why @grok must win

11hViews 412Likes 3
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@zengjiajun_eth @LefterisJP Whilst I'd agree and try, my project is about genomics and there are certain words I can't really avoid =)

7hViews 282Likes 2
Péter Szilágyi@peter_szilagyi

@DellAnnaLuca The advantage of capitalism was that technology was diffused across the population, so whether you're the president or a lecturer, you can still use the exact same iPhone.

Once you start limiting access to technology, you're recreating a monarchy, and serfdom. That's the issue.

7hViews 165Likes 6
magnus@degenutz

@peter_szilagyi @LefterisJP That’s why they’ll try to get open source models restricted next

10hViews 168Likes 5
Luca Dellanna@DellAnnaLuca

@peter_szilagyi Sure. I’m just pointing out that the dark world you’re describing is half as dark compared to how dark the world was just a couple of years ago, at least for anyone except the top 0.1% or so for proximity to experts.

7hViews 92Likes 1
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