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When the Trump administration cracks down on Anthropic, who benefits?

30 d ago

Anthropic was forced to take its two newest AI models—Fable 5 and Mythos 5—offline after an export control order from the Trump administration, citing unspecified “national security concerns.” The move, reported on a Friday, stemmed from White House tip-offs allegedly from Amazon researchers who claimed to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails, prompting Amazon CEO Andy Jassy to raise concerns. Anthropic said it had no choice but to pull the models entirely, as it could not ensure foreign nationals, including its own employees, would not access them. On TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Sean O’Kane noted that Anthropic’s historically strained relationship with the Trump administration sets it apart from other AI labs, suggesting rivals may avoid similar crackdowns. However, cybersecurity experts signed an open letter urging Trump to revoke the order, arguing that removing advanced cybersecurity capabilities from U.S. network defenders is dangerous and that similar jailbreaks exist in other models. Rebecca Bellan described the order as potentially retaliatory, given the ongoing lawsuit between Anthropic and the government. Yet she also noted Anthropic’s contradictory messaging—warning about AI dangers while releasing powerful models. Anthony Ha likened this to broader AI industry tensions, where companies hype their technology and then face backlash. Despite the stress, the episode could boost Anthropic’s reputation: past conflicts drove Claude downloads up, and the “bad boy” label might attract users eager to try a model even the government fears.