Editorial illustration for Asian AI startups launch Mythos‑style models, tout Sakana Fugu’s export‑safe AI
Asian AI startups launch Mythos‑style models, tout...
Asian AI startups launch Mythos‑style models, tout Sakana Fugu’s export‑safe AI
Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 stepped onto the scene on Wednesday with Tulongfeng, a model it says can square off against Anthropic’s Mythos. The claim is striking because the U.S. government has barred Mythos—and its trimmed‑down sibling, Fable 5—from export to anyone outside America. A week earlier, Tokyo‑based Sakana AI rolled out Fugu, a model named after the Japanese blowfish, and positioned it “shoulder‑to‑shoulder” with the same Anthropic offerings.
Both products arrive as the export ban, announced two weeks ago, continues to limit Anthropic’s global reach. While Sakana’s spokesperson called the timing “entirely coincidental,” the company’s website now touts a frontier AI that sidesteps export controls.
The two launches hint at a broader shift: Asian firms are willing to fill a gap left by Western restrictions, offering comparable capability without the regulatory baggage. Whether Tulongfeng or Fugu can truly match Mythos remains to be seen, but the moves underscore a growing appetite for high‑end models that can be accessed worldwide.
It's website advertises "delivering frontier capability without the risk of export controls." "Sakana Fugu is something we have been building since last year -- the research behind it was presented at ICLR this spring, and it reflects an approach that is central to how we deliver frontier-level value at Sakana AI. We were confident in the product on its own merits; the timing simply happened to coincide with a moment that brought it more attention than we expected," the spokesperson said about launching during the Mythos/Fable export ban. Sakana, co-founded in 2023 by former Google researchers Ren Ito, Llion Jones and David Ha, makes affordable generative AI models that work well with small datasets and are optimized for the Japanese language and culture.
While the company is targeting Fugu at Japanese businesses and government agencies looking to reduce their exposure to tightening export controls, it isn't yet proclaiming a lasting shift away from U.S. models remain important to Asia," the spokesperson said, a view consistent with remarks co-founder Ren Ito made at the G7 summit in Evian last week, where AI access and export controls were one of the central topics.
Why this matters
We see two Asian startups pushing against a tightening export regime that has sidelined Anthropic’s Mythos and its trimmed version, Fable 5. 360’s Tulongfeng is billed as a direct competitor, yet the claim of “going head‑to‑head” lacks public benchmarks, leaving us unsure how it measures up in real‑world tasks. Sakana’s Fugu, named for a blowfish, is positioned as “frontier capability without the risk of export controls,” a promise that rests on research disclosed at ICLR earlier this spring.
The brief description suggests a focus on avoiding regulatory entanglements rather than pure performance, which may appeal to developers seeking fewer legal hurdles. However, without independent evaluations, it is unclear whether these models truly match the power of the banned systems or simply occupy a niche of compliance‑first offerings. For founders and researchers, the emergence of Tulongfeng and Fugu signals that the market is responding to policy pressure, but the practical value of these tools remains to be demonstrated.
A curious development.
Further Reading
- Cutting access to Anthropic's Mythos is a gift to China - Financial Times
- Anthropic's New Mythos A.I. Model Sets Off Global Alarms - The New York Times
- What is Anthopic's Claude Mythos and what risks does it pose? - BBC
- What Anthropic's Mythos AI Model Actually Means for Defenders - Blog - 7AI Blog
- Chinese Firm Claims AI Hacking Skills Rivaling Anthropic's Claude Mythos - Reddit (PwnHub)
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