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Comment by trhway

1 day ago

>The reason is pretty obvious. Anthropic tried to play hardball with the government

that is one.

Another is who is going into the first IPO. Troubles for Anthropic IPO would channel all those money into OpenAI's one. Check financial interests of this admin. Hint - they aren't with Anthropic.

Third - most of the export and access controlled tech of the past wasn't productivity multiplier, nor human replacement. AI is a different case - the more capable AI the more its general economic benefit. Export and access control of AI allows you to more and more control the whole domestic and large part of global economy, not just military capabilities like in the past.

Political - coming into elections with "this evil new tech was coming after your jobs, yet we reigned it in and protected your jobs". After all such approach has been for decades working great when it comes to coalminers.

Note that specific bug-finding capabilities of a specific model is a red herring here, and other leading models are almost there, and definitely will be there in a month.

It is all about revenge, money and power.

Alternatively, this is the best advertising for which Anthropic could hope: "Our product, and nobody else's, is so good that the government declared us a threat to national security." If they bring it back for US-nationals only, maybe demanding ID for users, people will think it's the bees knees: "so dangerous that non-Americans can't have access" probably sounds like a ringing endorsement to some C-level decision makers.

Crowdstrike took down airports in July 2024, and its stock was back up by October; it's double the price now. Everyone saw how systemically important it was and how it took down entire industries, and they asked why they weren't using it themselves if it's so important. See also the 2025 cloud outages.

  • What good is advertising if they can't actually sell the product?

    • Customers (especially large ones) don't so much buy individual specific products, they buy into a company and its prospects. Customers don't want to chop and change. They want to lock in with the leader.

      This whole thing shrieks out that Anthropic is at the head of the pack, with the most capable models.

      It hardly matters in the customer's mind that today they can't buy this specific model.

      1 reply →

  • > Crowdstrike took down airports in July 2024, and its stock was back up by October; it's double the price now. Everyone saw how systemically important it was and how it took down entire industries, and they asked why they weren't using it themselves if it's so important. See also the 2025 cloud outages.

    Truly, too big to fail. Capitalism is broken when companies aren't punished but rewarded for screwing up. What point do stock markets serve when bad behavior has no incentives at all to be prevented?!

    • Not even limitoto companies, if you prevent a problem you get fired because your work isn't visible, if you create a problem and then fix it you're a hero

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>Troubles for Anthropic IPO would channel all those money into OpenAI's one.

Troubles for Anthropic would almost certainly affect OpenAI, significantly. Yesterday just proved that the government sees it within their remit to shut down AI models. All current and future AI investment now has to contend with this risk. You should even see the effect of this decision on SPCX on market open despite X.ai being whatever tiny fraction that it is.

  • The administration is not known for taking into account second order effects.

    The instantaneous instinct to strike an opponent when one can is not much more contemplated than that.

>> Another is who is going into the first IPO. Troubles for Anthropic IPO would channel all those money into OpenAI's one. Check financial interests of this admin. Hint - they aren't with Anthropic.

Yep. Kushner owns private shares of OpenAI.