World leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are raising concerns about U.S. control over American AI models. The fear is simple: the U.S. can cut off access whenever it chooses, with no warning or explanation.
That concern just became real. The Trump administration blocked Anthropic from exporting its newest Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models on national security grounds after Amazon alerted the White House to bypassed safety guardrails. The models are now frozen.
At Wednesday's G7 lunch—which included Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Trump—Macron warned that if the U.S. "from one day to the next can turn off the switch," European economies could suffer and American AI firms would lose markets. Modi raised the same issue, arguing that democratic nations need access to advanced AI models to protect critical infrastructure.
Cybersecurity experts note that the capabilities cited by the government already exist in other models, including OpenAI's. The selective nature of the crackdown raises questions about its actual security rationale.
The G7 is now discussing a "trusted partners" scheme—a framework that would allow non-U.S. nations to access advanced AI provided they commit to using it against rivals like China. The language is diplomatic, but the meaning is clear: don't freeze us out again.
Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez stated the broader worry plainly: "Companies and democratic nations remaining dependent on a small handful of big tech companies is dangerous." The risk is real: technology can be withdrawn without notice.
For startups in Paris and Bangalore, the implications are stark. Build on American AI, and it can disappear overnight. The U.S. has shown it will weaponize its technological advantage.
