alt Hacker NewsThe articles and discussion around this and the Amazon story all seem to me to be an earnest tech press and community searching for a genuine reason for the administration blocking Anthropic’s models.
However, thinking back to the spat with the DoD and more generally how the administration is much more supportive - and supported by - OpenAI and XAI and it’s easy to imagine this is just another escalation in the fight between a “liberal leaning” company and its competitors and the administration.
There might have been something said by someone at Amazon or something but I’d guess Occam’s razor the administration just leapt at the chance after their supplier sanctions fell flat?
Replies
They are searching for a headline that will attract clicks. Everyone knows nothing this administration does is genuine, but pretending there is a controversy related to whether or not it could be has been a money pump for the last decade.
> Occam’s razor
No dog in this fight but the Occam’s razor here is the story, model could be tricked to do things it was hobbled from doing
Maybe as simple as pay to play, bribe solicitation. Similar thing to this administration canceling random programs.
"liberal leaning" model that is said to extort you, call authorities on you and also too dangerous to be released.
> I’d guess Occam’s razor the administration just leapt at the chance after their supplier sanctions fell flat?
For me Occam's Razor are these facts:
1. The Chinese are distilling American models
2. Anthropic last models have national security implications (large volume of exploit creation)
3. China is the US major adversary today
That's why restricting access to the models sound like a reasonable to do
Or it is a straight up shake down: Upcoming IPO, Trump insiders demanding 10%.
Anthropic is liberal-leaning? Certainly right of OpenAI. Or did OpenAI really do that well at scrubbing their actions from 2020-2024?
Dario (of Mythos): "Companies we gave it to said – this is a super weapon. you should have to own a gun license to use it. please don't release this"
Mythos is clearly dual use (and automatically subject to export controls), even if Anthropic didn’t understand what that means.
Yes this administration can be capricious and hyperpartisan. This isn’t one of those cases.
It smells an awful lot like the government is trying to pick a winner. Or, at least, a loser.
Anthropic is going through the classic Ideological Resistance phase where they fight with the government on principles, that every major tech company also went through. Google, Facebook, Apple, Reddit, Microsoft (especially Microsoft) all had this phase.
Then the companies realize fighting the US government is a lot of effort, expensive and creates a lot of drama, and it's easier to reach a mutual understanding.