News-June-14-2026

June 14, 2026 — Beijing's order forcing Meta to unwind its $2 billion Manus acquisition moved from regulatory demand toward operational separation, a U.S. government directive forced Anthropic to disable access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, and OpenAI faced a state-attorney-general investigation into advertising, data handling, and protections for vulnerable users.

Contents

1. Meta moves to unwind Manus acquisition after Beijing demand
2. Anthropic disables Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after U.S. export-control order
3. OpenAI faces state attorneys general investigation

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Meta moves to unwind Manus acquisition after Beijing demand

TechCrunch reported on June 13, 2026 that Meta had begun dismantling its $2 billion acquisition of Manus, completing an operational separation from the Chinese-founded AI startup and halting data sharing between the companies. TechCrunch reported that the separation was the most concrete step toward complying with a divestiture order that Beijing issued roughly two months earlier on national-security grounds.

Meta cut Manus off from internal systems and prevented employees from using Manus tools for internal projects as the companies moved toward a full separation, according to TechCrunch's report on Bloomberg's account of the unwinding process. TechCrunch also reported that Manus co-founders had held preliminary discussions about raising about $1 billion from outside investors to reclaim the startup from Meta, a structure that could support a Chinese joint venture and eventual Hong Kong listing.

The development is significant for AI law because it shows Chinese national-security and technology-control authorities reshaping a cross-border AI acquisition after closing, and because TechCrunch reported that Chinese authorities were also expanding travel restrictions for private-firm researchers and executives and tightening approval requirements for U.S. investment in major AI firms.

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Anthropic disables Fable 5 and Mythos 5 after U.S. export-control order

CNBC reported on June 12, 2026 that Anthropic disabled access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models after receiving a U.S. government directive restricting access by foreign nationals. CNBC reported that the directive applied to foreign nationals inside and outside the United States, including foreign-national Anthropic employees, and that Anthropic disabled the models for all customers to ensure compliance.

Euronews, carrying Associated Press reporting, reported on June 13, 2026 that European political figures described the shutdown as a wake-up call about dependence on U.S. AI technology. TechCrunch reported on June 13, 2026 that the same U.S. export-control action renewed debate in India over sovereign AI capacity because Indian AI ambitions remain tied to U.S.-developed and U.S.-governed model access.

The development is significant for AI law because it turns frontier-model access into an export-control and national-security compliance issue, and because the reported application to foreign nationals inside the United States raises operational questions for multinational AI developers, enterprise customers, and non-U.S. employees working with restricted model systems.

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OpenAI faces state attorneys general investigation

TechCrunch reported on June 13, 2026 that a coalition of state attorneys general had opened an investigation into OpenAI, and that OpenAI had been served with a subpoena from the New York attorney general seeking documents on advertising, user engagement and retention, model sycophancy, consumer-data and health-data handling, and the treatment of minors and seniors. CNBC likewise reported that OpenAI said it would engage constructively with state attorneys general after the Wall Street Journal reported the investigation and subpoena.

OpenAI told TechCrunch that ChatGPT includes safeguards for minors and people experiencing difficult situations, including routing users to real-world resources and trusted human contacts, and said it had built age prediction, released parental tools, and disallowed advertising targeting children. CNBC reported that the investigation follows Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's lawsuit alleging that OpenAI knowingly released an unsafe ChatGPT product that could harm users.

The development is significant for AI law because it moves scrutiny of chatbot safety, advertising, user-retention design, and health-data practices from private litigation into a coordinated state consumer-protection and privacy investigation.