Trump’s Anthropic shutdown just made the case for non-American AI

At Washington's request, Anthropic suddenly took its newest and most powerful AI models offline over the weekend. The American company said it had little choice after the White House demanded it block access for all foreign nationals, including its own employees.

Abroad, the incident offered a sobering reminder that the US not only dominates frontier AI - its government also wields power over who gets to use it. The Trump administration's action was swift, sweeping, and imposed with little warning or explanation.