alt Hacker NewsAnthropic employees accuse Trump administration of targeting them
Comments
Is regulation unregulated in the US? As in it’s missing consistency and transparency. Beyond Anthropic, the US signals to the world that depending and using American solutions is high risk. Is that what the US government desires? The digital battleground across regions is on the rise. I don’t see us as the US on the right path.
> We’re proposing stronger regulation of the technology. We’re proposing giving the government the ability to, again in a narrow way, block deployment of unsafe technology.
Anthropic CEO https://abc7.com/post/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-calls-stron...
Misleading headline based on one off-hand slack comment and quotations from experts outside the firm.
One wonders if this might be a net positive for the world if Anthropic is forced to terminate it's non-US citizen employees.
I would hope they return to their home countries with their expertise and start or join new competing frontier labs, similar to how Taiwan's homegrown semiconductor industry arose from US companies enforcing a bamboo ceiling on their Asian engineers. Taiwan was able to repatriate their nationals and make incredible compounding leaps in the semiconductor industry, to the loss and chagrin of the US. [1]
[1] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/07/1127595393/taiwan-miracle-sem...
I'm accusing Anthropic of being facetious
Anthropic employees are right, but maybe this is for good. It certainly has opened my eyes.
I can’t rely on using a technology that the US administration can ban at will.
IMO without getting into personal thoughts about how capable the current US administration is, last Friday move sent a very powerful signal to the industry.
Also I don’t think China releasing so many good models, capable to compete with Opus 4.8 and GPT 5.5, all at once, is a coincidence.
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone following the news.
Trump has said broadcasters who allow criticism of him should lose their FCC broadcast licenses [1], demanded that "Bondi Move Now" to prosecute foes, ordered DOJ investigation of two first-term administration aides who criticized him.
Trump is doing this to members of congress (threat of primarying by Trump and Musk), judges (threat of impeachment and even the threat of eliminating federal courts that oppose him), law firms (threat of canceling federal contracts and security clearances), press and media (threat of banning from White House press pool, launching FCC investigations), etc. This atmosphere of fear and intimidation — of pretty much everyone — is the norm for this administration.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/us/politics/trump-fcc-lic...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/us/politics/trump-justice...
[3] https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/09/donald-trump-retrib...
I mean obviously they're correct but also the complaints of the administration aren't totally without basis.
- They're obviously being targeted politically because they refuse to kiss the ring, vibes, whatever you want to call it.
- They're also justifiably being scrutinized because they just spent like 3 months telling everyone that Mythos is a nuclear bomb and telling the government to fuck off as they drip fed access to a bunch of random corporations.
Unfortunately saying it in the press is going to make it even harder for them in the current environment. I know this administration gets non-trivial support from the valley, but what to most outsiders seems like "targeting businesses based on personal vibes" is going to do long-term harm to the U.S.
I hope those who represent technology in government, especially the AI head David Sacks are giving this due consideration.
Anthropic should be nationalized, that should make everyone (except shareholders) happy.
> Workers at the artificial intelligence company have been puzzled and increasingly concerned by the administration’s move to limit their latest A.I. models.
There is no way any employees at anthropic are this dumb.
Anthropic is just the whipping boy. It keeps everyone else in line.
Yes, obviously. People really need to update their priors on how the US operates now. Laws are out, loyalty is in. There is an extraordinarily powerful unitary executive in whom the will of the people resides and it is the job of the government and society to work towards the will of this powerful executive. There are no checks or balances or alternative centres of power (civil, political, clerical, etc) allowed.
This particular executive loves money, praise, and submission. When Anthropic submits (eg agreeing to whatever the DoD demands), issues public praise and makes appropriate donations (eg ballroom, memecoin, etc), then they can do as they please.
Students of history will find this new MO very familiar and very depressing.
Trump vs anthropic
Elon vs openai
Trump vs elon
Bezos vs anthropic
When movie?
Anthropic sowing: Hehe yeah guys check out this model it's super duper scary and powerful it's a huge deal
Anthropic reaping: Hey wait a second you weren't supposed to take that seriously it was just marketing :(
They just removed Fable in France
If you manage the corner coffeeshop, and the city health director calls with an urgent matter, you take the call and assure them you'll take care of it.
They did a whole PR cycle about how dangerous their technology was. They refused to release it for public consumption.
How is this “targeting”? It’s literally what was requested.
Anthropic declares: "Mythos is too dangerous too release to the public" Proceeds to release Mythos plus safety guardrails as Fable. Amazon removes guardrails from Fable, getting access to Mythos. Government takes Anthropic's word for it and tells them to pull it until the guardrails can't be removed. They refuse. Government forces them.
Didn't their CEO argue how super powerful and dangerous their AI models are and government should be able to restricting usage
https://abc7.com/post/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-calls-stron...
> "We're proposing stronger regulation of the technology, proposing giving the government the ability to, again, in a narrow way, block deployment of unsafe technology," he said.
The government: "We're restricting its usage to US citizens only"
Anthropic: "No, no, not like that! "
Any company building this kind of tech should have a separate shell headquarters on some low regulation island country.
Any government work can be done via MOU with a US subsidiary staffed by Americans.
This kind of capricious, unexplained control is bullsh*t.
I’m not saying that I want companies to have to go offshore or that that would be a good thing. Just that you’ve got no leverage if your corporate structure can be destroyed on a whim. This goes for any company reliant on a whimsical executive branch.
While there could still be fights over the technology and the company, a tech provider would still be able to serve other customers and have more leverage.