The AI Arms Race
The contest to field more capable systems first, and the pressure that contest puts on everyone else.
August 13, 2026 · Power & Politics
Report maps how AI picks military targets
The software deciding who gets bombed is a chain of separate AI programs handing guesses to each other, and a new report says soldiers tend to approve those guesses without checking the evidence behind them. Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute, laid out the findings on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, describing a joint project with the civilian casualty monitoring group Airwars called "Anatomy of an AI Kill Chain." She said militaries are in an arms race to adopt these tools in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran, and that errors compound as each flawed system feeds the next, ending in civilian deaths.
July 26, 2026 · Power & Politics
AI labs outspend legacy chipmakers on DC lobbying
AI labs are now outspending legacy chipmakers on Washington lobbying, a sign of how much regulatory risk has shifted toward frontier model companies. The Financial Times reported on July 26, citing newly filed federal disclosures compiled by nonpartisan watchdog Issue One, that eleven major tech, social media, and AI firms spent a combined $41.8 million lobbying the U.S. government in the first half of 2026, averaging more than $230,000 per day. Anthropic nearly tripled its six-month total to $3.53 million, more than the company spent in all of 2025, while OpenAI roughly doubled to a record $2.22 million; both companies focused their disclosed lobbying on federal rules for new model releases, export controls, cybersecurity, defense procurement, and data center construction. Issue One also reported that the White House intervened to shield Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai from testifying at a July Senate hearing on child safety practices, with the Instagram and YouTube division heads substituting for their bosses.
July 7, 2026 · Power & Politics
DeepSeek builds its own chips after Nvidia ban
U.S. export controls blocked DeepSeek from Nvidia's chips, so the Chinese startup is now quietly building its own. People familiar with the matter say DeepSeek has spent about a year expanding its chip engineering team and talking to design firms, foundries, and memory suppliers. The push comes as DeepSeek raises its first outside funding round, expected to bring in $7 billion at a valuation near $55 billion.
July 1, 2026 · Power & Politics
Anthropic's Claude models return after government shutdown
Anthropic's top AI models are back online after an 18-day government-forced shutdown. The Commerce Department lifted export controls on Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, which had been suspended after Amazon researchers found a way to bypass Fable 5's safety guardrails to identify software vulnerabilities. In exchange, Anthropic agreed to block the bypass technique, submit models for pre-release government review, and share threat intelligence with federal cybersecurity agencies; Fable 5 is back to global access, but Mythos 5 stays limited to about 100 approved U.S. organizations.
June 28, 2026 · Power & Politics
US AI export ban hands Asian rivals an opening
When the U.S. locked foreign users out of Anthropic's top models, Asian competitors rushed in to fill the gap. Tokyo-based Sakana AI launched "Fugu," a frontier model it markets explicitly as delivering top-tier capability "without the risk of export controls," directly after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's ban blocked foreign nationals from Anthropic's Mythos 5 and Fable 5. Beijing-based 360 also moved into the space, with founder Zhou Hongyi framing AI vulnerability-finding as a national strategic asset for China.
June 27, 2026 · Power & Politics
US pushes AI firms to report misuse and pull models
A bipartisan bill would force AI companies to report suspected misuse straight to the federal government. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and John Moolenaar introduced the Cloud Security Act to close export control loopholes aimed at rivals like China, the same week the Commerce Department pressured Anthropic into pulling its Fable 5 model over national security concerns, which Anthropic did. Critics warn that rushed restrictions like this could leave organizations without the advanced AI tools they rely on for their own security.
June 26, 2026 · Power & Politics
US government now personally approves top AI model access
The U.S. government now has to personally sign off on who gets access to the most powerful AI models. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick partially restored Anthropic's Mythos 5 model for about 100 vetted U.S. organizations, two weeks after export controls forced Anthropic to pull it and Fable 5 offline entirely. OpenAI similarly restricted its new GPT-5.6 Sol model to a government-vetted partner list, saying it hopes this kind of gatekeeping "doesn't become the long-term default."
June 12, 2026 · Power & Politics
US bars foreigners from Anthropic's top AI models
The United States government issues an export control directive forcing Anthropic to suspend global access to its most advanced models, Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns. The order specifically bars access by foreign nationals, including Anthropic's own non-US employees, due to fears of potential jailbreaks that could be exploited for cyberattacks.
June 12, 2026 · Power & Politics
Commerce Department blocks Anthropic's global model access
The U.S. Commerce Department issued an unprecedented export control directive forcing Anthropic to immediately suspend global access to its newly released Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models.
June 12, 2026 · Power & Politics
US forces Anthropic to pull two AI models worldwide
The U.S. Commerce Department, under Secretary Howard Lutnick, issued an emergency export control directive ordering Anthropic to immediately suspend access to its Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers discovered a jailbreak method and CEO Andy Jassy raised concerns with the White House. Because Anthropic had no technical means to filter access by nationality, it took both models offline globally within hours, cutting off organizations in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere with no warning, appeal process, or migration window. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other senior officials had pressured CEO Dario Amodei to cooperate voluntarily before the formal order was issued.
December 2, 2024 · Power & Politics
Biden tightens chip export rules against China
The Biden administration announces a further tightening of chip export controls, adding 140 Chinese entities to the Entity List and extending controls to high-bandwidth memory.
October 17, 2023 · Power & Politics
Biden tightens AI chip export rules on China
The Biden administration updates its 2022 chip export controls, closing loopholes and expanding restrictions on AI-specific chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.
October 7, 2022 · Power & Politics
US blocks advanced AI chip exports to China
The Biden administration's Bureau of Industry and Security announces sweeping export controls on advanced semiconductors to China, restricting high-end AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.