The writer is senior fellow in geoeconomics at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the author of ‘Backfire’
Last Friday, Washington imposed export controls on Anthropic’s latest frontier AI models Mythos and Fable 5, forcing the company to cut off global access to both. While developers lamented the loss on online forums and Wall Street tried to assess the impact it may have on Anthropic’s upcoming initial public offering, the bigger picture was lost in the noise: Washington has just done more to boost the appeal of Chinese AI models than Beijing could have ever hoped.
The Trump administration’s implementation of the export ban was chaotic. The notice arrived at 5.21pm on a Friday, attributed to a security issue that Anthropic says is a misunderstanding. For global companies pondering which AI model to pick, such a process is a red flag. If Washington can shut down access at such short notice, it undermines the case for building infrastructure around US AI. The lack of transparency carries a warning that this extraordinary action could be repeated.