{"id":2663,"date":"2026-06-21T06:36:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2663"},"modified":"2026-06-21T06:36:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T06:36:13","slug":"lutnicks-anthropic-crackdown-claims-new-power-over-ai-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2663","title":{"rendered":"Lutnick\u2019s Anthropic crackdown claims new power over AI models"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Maggie Eastland, Bloomberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s push to rein in Anthropic PBC, outlined in a recent Commerce Department order, relies on an unprecedented use of export control laws and raises legal questions about whether the US can dictate who can access artificial intelligence systems.<\/p>\n

Read more SpaceX\u2019s epic fundraising campaign for AI has only just begun<\/a><\/p>\n

In ordering Anthropic to obtain US approval for foreign nationals to use its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick expanded the boundaries of laws governing transfers of sensitive technology to target the mere usage of cutting-edge AI models. That\u2019s fueling concerns among developers and their customers about the government\u2019s willingness to intervene in their operations on national security grounds.<\/p>\n

Before last week\u2019s directive, the technology industry had operated under the assumption, based on past official advisory opinions, that export controls did not apply to usage of cloud-based programs, even if US restrictions applied to transfers of the software code itself. In the wake of Lutnick\u2019s letter, \u201cyou can\u2019t say that any more,\u201d said Kate Koren, a deputy director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that the Commerce Department has done it, no company can rule out that they\u2019re going to do it again,\u201d added Koren, who previously worked at the Commerce Department. \u201cUntil or unless this is challenged, any customer has to assume this could happen for any model at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The order marked the government\u2019s most significant intervention in the AI industry, prompting Anthropic to immediately disable access to both models. It represented a major shift from plans to vet AI models based on companies\u2019 voluntary participation spelled out by an executive order from President Donald Trump a little more than two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Lutnick\u2019s letter to the company, seen by Bloomberg News, has raised questions over whether simply using an AI model now counts legally as a technology transfer. That position, which is required to make the order\u2019s restrictions enforceable, runs counter to past practice regarding access to software capabilities, according to export control analysts and trade lawyers.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees US export control programs, has long enforced rules requiring companies to gain US approval before sharing certain sensitive technologies, including with foreign employees, a process it calls \u201cdeemed exports,\u201d but its application to AI usage is uncharted territory.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cFor the provisions cited in the letter, it matters a quite a lot what Commerce means by \u2018model,\u2019\u201d said Chris Chamberlain, a former Commerce Department adviser and partner in the law firm Morrison Foerster\u2019s national security group. \u201cThe baseline interpretation is that providing cloud access to software is not an export or deemed export of that software.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter, addressed to Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei, Lutnick cited two codified export control authorities that he said give the US the ability to impose license requirements. Those powers, however, remain relatively untested and may only be applicable for specific countries, rather than on a worldwide basis.<\/p>\n

The first statute gives the US the ability to identify emerging technologies and enact interim restrictions over them. The second allows the government to quickly impose license requirements to defuse a risk of controlled technologies reaching a military intelligence end user in an adversarial nation like China or Russia.<\/p>\n

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While the administration has yet to comment on the reasons for its decision, the company says it believes the government issued the order after discovering that it\u2019s possible to \u201cjailbreak,\u201d or bypass the guardrails, of Fable 5, a recently released version of Mythos that Anthropic had blocked from carrying out cybersecurity tasks.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThe US has solved a problem,\u201d Koren said, referring to the jailbreak risk. \u201cBut they\u2019ve opened a can of worms by doing it this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since last week, the company\u2019s technical staff and administration officials have been holding discussions in a bid to resolve the government\u2019s national security concerns, though so far, there\u2019s been little public sign of progress. When asked Wednesday at the Group of Seven summit in France about the status of the talks, Trump said they were \u201cgoing fine\u201d but gave no additional details.<\/p>\n

At the G-7, the US crackdown on Anthropic took center stage, with French President Emmanuel Macron leading discussions on ways to deploy advanced AI models through so-called trusted partners. Broadly, the US move has \u201crenewed worldwide calls for technological sovereignty and independence from the American ecosystem,\u201d said Michelle Nie, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.<\/p>\n

For now, the Commerce Department\u2019s measures require Anthropic to obtain a license to offer those models to anyone who\u2019s a foreign person. The company doesn\u2019t currently require citizenship verifications for its users, and it counts foreign nationals among its own employees.<\/p>\n

The move means the rest of the AI industry will be forced to take heed of the authority asserted by Lutnick, and BIS can invoke other powers if the specific provisions used against Anthropic are contested. That raises the risk of service interruptions for companies that run afoul of US government requests.<\/p>\n

Aidan Gomez, the chief executive officer of Canadian AI developer Cohere Inc., said on Thursday that the episode highlights the need for companies to lean on a range of providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve been saying for so long,\u201d Gomez said in an interview at the VivaTech conference in France. \u201cIf you rely on centralized large players, you are at risk of losing access, and so you need a diversified supply chain of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013With assistance from Benoit Berthelot, Josh Wingrove, Mackenzie Hawkins and Ania Nussbaum.<\/p>\n

Read more Tiburon police arrest teen on kidnapping, robbery charges after domestic incident<\/a><\/p>\n

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration’s push to rein in Anthropic PBC, outlined in a recent Commerce Department order, relies on an unprecedented use of export control laws and raises legal questions about whether the US can dictate who can access artificial intelligence systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\nLutnick\u2019s Anthropic crackdown claims new power over AI models - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=2663\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lutnick\u2019s Anthropic crackdown claims new power over AI models - 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