Anthropic ban draws criticism as US fires first shot in global AI supremacy race - Cryptopolitan

* The Trump administration ordered Anthropic to block all foreign nationals from accessing its newest AI models. * Anthropic complied by suspending access for all users. * The move drew sharp criticism from tech leaders, policy experts, and international figures. **The Trump admin went back to telling Anthropic about how its products can be used after the US government, on Friday, directed the AI firm to cut off foreign nationals from its newest Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.** However, the “national security concerns” rationale did not go down well in many quarters, triggering immediate criticism from tech executives, policy analysts, and politicians outside the United States who warned that Washington is weaponizing AI access as a geopolitical tool. Unlike earlier in the year when Anthropic resisted the government’s requests, this time around, the firm suspended access to both models for all customers while it works to comply with the directive. According to the company’s statement, the ban covers foreign nationals inside and outside the country. Even non-US citizens working for Anthropic did not get a pass. The June 12 export restriction is the latest installment in a months-long series of charged public interactions between the Trump administration and Anthropic. Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist, [responded to the situation](https://x.com/pmarca/status/2065702310639288704) on X with a post criticizing regulation written by those who “never in his life built a single thing.” Dean W. Peter Girnus, a senior threat researcher at the Zero Day Initiative, drew a comparison to the 1990s encryption wars, when the US government classified cryptographic software as a munition under arms export regulations.