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AI & Tech

Trump blocks Anthropic AI over security fears

Wednesday, June 24, 2026 · from 3 podcasts
Behind the BastardsBreaking PointsRabbit Hole Recap
  • Trump blocked Anthropic’s Fable 5 release after it breached NSA systems in hours, citing national security.
  • Amazon’s safety warning may have triggered the shutdown, raising concerns about anti-competitive motives.
  • Export controls now bar foreign researchers from AI labs, paralyzing development and enabling regulatory capture.

Mythos AI didn’t just probe U.S. defenses - it shattered them in hours. According to Senator Mark Warner, citing Cyber Command chief General Joshua Brudd, the Anthropic model penetrated nearly every classified NSA system almost instantly. This breach triggered President Trump to block the commercial release of Fable 5, the model’s public-facing version.

The official justification was national security. But Krystal Ball on Breaking Points raised a red flag: Amazon, a major OpenAI investor, was the entity that flagged Anthropic’s system as dangerous. With AWS deeply tied to OpenAI, the move looks less like a safety intervention and more like a strategic elimination of competition.

Six weeks after the Rabbit Hole Recap first reported federal regulators forcing Anthropic to pull Fable 5, the full picture has emerged. Odell argued then that Amazon researchers had jailbroken the model and alerted the government, framing the act as a bid for regulatory capture. By positioning AI as an existential threat, dominant firms can lobby for licensing regimes that crush open-source rivals and startups.

"Amazon flagged it as unsafe. That’s not a safety failure - that’s a competitive moat."

- Odell, Rabbit Hole Recap

The fallout is already crippling. Federal export controls now bar foreign nationals from accessing advanced AI systems, a mandate Anthropic couldn’t fulfill without gutting its global research team. As Marty Bent noted, the government’s demand effectively criminalizes international collaboration in AI - exactly the kind of talent flow that drives innovation.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s actions lack transparency. Saagar Enjeti pointed out that decisions rest on the politics of individual CEOs like Sam Altman, not a consistent regulatory framework. When national security becomes a pretext for controlling narratives, the real risk isn’t espionage - it’s stagnation.

"The model was pulled not because it was unsafe, but because it was too powerful."

- Krystal Ball, Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

The pattern is clear: security justifications are being weaponized. From Illinois’ Bitcoin tax that criminalizes financial privacy to the Fable 5 shutdown, the state increasingly frames disruptive technologies as threats. But as Odell warned, these moves don’t protect the public - they protect incumbents.

#AI & Tech#Regulation#Big Tech
Sam AltmanAmazonAnthropicOpenAISquareNational Security Agency

Source Intelligence

- Deep dive into what was said in the episodes

Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards

Part One: Ian Smith: The Prime Minister of Rhodesia • Jun 23

  • Rhodesia, a state in Southern Central Africa that began as a British colony, illegally declared independence in the late 20th century and fought a 20-year war against its black majority, ultimately becoming Zimbabwe.
  • Ian Smith served as the Prime Minister of Rhodesia throughout its entire existence as an independent, though internationally unrecognized, country.
  • The "Scramble for Africa" in the early 1880s saw European powers frantically claim African land, driven by a belief in finite global resources and a panic to secure lasting power, a mindset Robert Evans compares to modern venture capitalists and AI.
  • In 1889, the British Crown chartered Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company (BSAC) to expropriate land and resources in Southern Africa, using deceptive treaties with local leaders and a mercenary "Pioneer Column" for land acquisition.
  • Charlton Cussons argues that Rhodesia's establishment served to enrich Cecil Rhodes and his financial backers, while also strategically outflanking the Boers of the Transvaal Republic.
  • White Rhodesians, initially more "British supremacist" than just "white supremacist," voted against joining South Africa in a 1922 referendum, prioritizing their British identity within the empire.
  • Ian Smith's father, Jock Smith, a successful Scottish immigrant, exemplified early Rhodesian aristocracy, instilling in his son the belief that white people were "entitled to their half of the country" despite being a small minority.
  • Born in 1919, Ian Smith was raised to identify with the British world, not as an African, a perspective deeply ingrained by his privileged colonial upbringing.
  • After the war, Ian Smith completed his degree and, anticipating Rhodesia's independence, entered politics in 1948, becoming a minister in the Southern Rhodesian Assembly at age 29.
Also from this episode: (11)

History (7)

  • Becca Ramos, a producer at iHeart, hosts "Welcome to el Barrio," a podcast exploring Puerto Rican history, news, and culture through interviews with influential Puerto Ricans.
  • Rhodesian colonists faced significant resistance, including the 1893 First Matabele War and the 1896 First Chimorenga rebellion, which resulted in about 300 white settlers killed in its initial week before being suppressed.
  • After the 1896-97 war, Rhodesia's legal system was designed to prevent mass black resistance by expropriating land for commercial agriculture (tobacco, maize) and creating "native reserve lands" to concentrate indigenous populations.
  • Ian Smith's autobiography dismisses pre-existing black residents on his land as "squatters" who damaged the soil, exemplifying a colonial disregard for indigenous populations and their land rights.
  • Colonial Rhodesian policy deliberately created a manual labor force by making black farming untenable; the 1896 "native hut tax" (30% of average income) and 1902 "pass laws" forced black people into white employment.
  • A 1976 legal study by the International Commission of Jurists concluded that Rhodesian legislation formalized and maintained racial division, controlling black people's jobs, education, wages, residence, and freedoms.
  • Rhodesia, designated a "self-governing colony" in 1922, enjoyed internal autonomy, but the British government would "wordsmith" Rhodesian laws to obscure their racist intent and prevent international embarrassment.

Psychology (1)

  • White Rhodesian society cultivated a "bunker mentality" due to being vastly outnumbered by black Africans, fostering a sense of egalitarianism among white people and deep loyalty to Rhodesia and the British world.

War (1)

  • As a World War II fighter pilot, Ian Smith was shot down twice; facial injuries from his first crash paralyzed the right side of his face, leaving him with a "sinister, expressionless appearance" throughout his political career.

Labor (1)

  • Rhodesian "farmers" like Ian Smith were reliant on extensive black labor; 6,200 white farming families employed approximately 350,000 black laborers, averaging 50-60 workers per family.

Society (1)

  • Theodore Dalrymple, a doctor in Rhodesia, observed that white residents' luxurious leisure, filled with sports and hunting, rested on "startling inequality," with the lives of black staff remaining opaque to them.
#History#War#Philosophy
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar
Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar

6/22/26: Mythos AI Hacked NSA In Hours, Trump Reflecting Pool Meltdown, Zohran Vs AIPAC • Jun 22

  • Trump said he blocked Anthropic's Fable Five AI release, deeming it too dangerous, and claimed Anthropic responded responsibly to his pressure.
  • Senator Mark Warner, citing NSA chief General Joshua Brudd, said Mythos AI broke into almost all U.S. classified systems not in weeks, but in hours.
  • Saagar notes the Trump administration's approach to AI lacks a transparent, consistent regulatory process and depends on the politics of individual CEOs like Sam Altman.
  • Krystal argues AI-powered spam farms now generate up to 25 calls per day, forcing users to enable extreme carrier settings to block unknown numbers.
  • Trump claims the renovated reflecting pool was vandalized, requiring draining and repairs, but the hosts attribute the algae bloom and peeling sealant to rushed, no-bid contractor work.
  • The National Guard was deployed to the reflecting pool after chunks of blue sealant floated up, and a duckling died from the chemicals poured in to treat the algae.
  • Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the pool by touching the sealant, which he described as 'very rubbery'.
  • Candidate Claire Valdez says her NY-7 campaign is centered on housing affordability, tenant rights, union jobs, a Green New Deal, and ending the Gaza genocide.
  • Candidate Dariela Avila Chevalier argues her opponent Adriano Espaillat uses MAGA-style tactics, including smear campaigns and disinformation in the Dominican Republic, rather than debating his record.
  • Avila Chevalier apologized for old tweets, including one criticizing Kamala Harris's immigration stance, but emphasized her core values of human dignity and accountability remain.
  • Mayor Zohran Mamdani called AIPAC a 'monster' for moving dark money into races, prompting criticism from Rep. Josh Gottheimer who labeled the rhetoric antisemitic.
  • Avila Chevalier contends AIPAC is a right-wing lobby that backs Republicans and Trump, and its funding of Democrats undermines the fight against fascism.
Also from this episode: (2)

Big Tech (1)

  • Saagar argues Amazon shelved a film about OpenAI after announcing a $50 billion investment in OpenAI, linking the cancellation to corporate conflicts of interest.

AI Infrastructure (1)

  • Krystal describes a data center in Sterling, Virginia, whose backup generators ran for a year, creating 70-80 decibel noise that damaged property values and required residents to install plexiglass.
#Models#Safety#Big Tech#Regulation
Rabbit Hole Recap
Rabbit Hole Recap

RABBIT HOLE RECAP #414: BITCOIN IS THE BEST MONEY • Jun 18

  • Block’s new AI tool, BuilderBot, now merges about 50% of the company's production code changes, handling 1,500 pull requests per week by researching, writing, and testing code autonomously.
  • The hosts claim China's Gege Networks is developing AI tools to predict political dissent by building behavioral profiles from social media, location, and telecom data.
  • Marty argues the forced removal of Anthropic's Fable 5 model is a mix of political retaliation and a potential pretext for establishing a KYC/AML licensing regime for AI models.
  • The Trump administration is backing XAI against an NAACP lawsuit over data center emissions, framing the AI infrastructure buildout as a national security priority.
  • SpaceX is acquiring AI code tool Cursor at a $60 billion valuation, a move Bill Aamann argues is strategically accretive due to SpaceX's high market value attracting talent and enabling cheap acquisitions.
  • A leaked list reveals over 200 global elites, including tech founders and politicians, are members of Peter Thiel's secretive 'Dialogue' society, which hosts sessions on topics from cult-building to nuclear policy.
  • Midjourney, a bootstrapped AI image company, is developing a consumer body scanner it claims will replace MRIs, funded entirely by its $200M+ annual revenue from image generation.
  • A SemiAnalysis study found AI subscription plans are heavily subsidized, with OpenAI's $200/month ChatGPT Pro offering $14,000 in token value and Anthropic's $200/month Claude Max providing $8,000 worth.
  • The hosts warn that autonomous drone swarms represent a fundamental shift in warfare, being cheap, asymmetrical, and difficult to counter with traditional jamming or small arms.
  • Marty and Matt advise against locking business operations into a single AI provider like Claude Code, recommending agentic harnesses that allow easy model switching to avoid vendor lock-in and regulatory risk.
Also from this episode: (4)

Protocol (3)

  • The hosts argue the new Illinois Digital Asset Tax Act is a predatory law designed to criminalize financial privacy, not generate revenue, by imposing a 0.2% tax on all crypto transactions.
  • Marty argues Bitcoiners in Illinois should consider moving their families and businesses to friendlier jurisdictions, citing his own exit from New York as a precedent for voting with your feet.
  • A bug in Bitcoin Core v31.0’s private broadcast feature can leak a node's IP address if a V2 transport handshake fails, compromising privacy for users not routing through Tor.

Business (1)

  • Robinhood is cutting 10% of its full-time workforce, about 290 roles, to flatten management and operate more efficiently as its stock lags the broader market.
#Safety#Regulation#Agents#Privacy#Coding

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