Carney says US ban on Anthropic AI models shows risks of dependence

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that the U.S. export ban on Anthropic’s top AI models highlights the dangers of relying on a few American providers.newsday
The Commerce Department ordered Anthropic to disable its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for all foreign nationals, forcing the company to shut them down for everyone, according to Reuters.reuters
Carney, who launched Canada’s national AI strategy earlier this month, urged allies to diversify, saying “having only one option is never advisable.”wral

Carney Warns of AI Dependence After US Blocks Foreign Access to Anthropic Models

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that the U.S. government’s sudden export ban on Anthropic’s most advanced AI models underscores the risks of countries relying too heavily on a handful of American technology providers.

Speaking from Westport, Ireland, where he was wrapping up bilateral meetings before heading to the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, Carney called the disruption a cautionary tale for allied nations.

“The predicament we face collectively with Mythos and Fable illustrates the potential consequences of relying too heavily on specific models,” Carney said, according to an Associated Press report. “No one has acted improperly in this scenario. However, we would be at fault if we simply accept the situation without learning from it, without expanding, and without diversifying.”newsday

“You will hear me reiterate this frequently: having only one option is never advisable,” Carney added.wral

The Export Ban

Anthropic announced Friday that it had disabled its newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, for all users after receiving an export control directive from the U.S. Commerce Department barring foreign nationals from accessing them. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick communicated the order directly to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, according to The Wall Street Journal.reuters

The directive applies not only to users outside the United States but also to foreign nationals inside the country, including Anthropic’s own non-citizen employees. Unable to verify the citizenship of individual users in real time, Anthropic said it had no choice but to shut the models down entirely.anthropic

The company said the government cited a “narrow potential jailbreak” — a method of bypassing built-in safety guardrails — as justification for the order, but Anthropic contested that characterization, calling it a “misunderstanding” and saying the discovery of a narrow vulnerability “should not warrant the recall of a commercial model.”1news

Amazon.com, Inc.’s cloud division AWS confirmed it had revoked access to the models at Anthropic’s request.reuters

Canada’s AI Sovereignty Push

Carney’s remarks fit within a broader Canadian strategy to reduce dependence on U.S. technology. On June 4, his government launched “AI for All,” a national AI strategy promising $200 billion in economic growth and 250,000 new AI-related jobs over five years, with an emphasis on sovereign compute infrastructure and diversified partnerships.gc

During his Saturday meeting in Dublin with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Carney announced a bilateral cooperation partnership covering AI, life sciences, and trade. He has framed his European tour as part of an effort to build a coalition of middle powers less reliant on Washington.youtube

The G7 summit, which begins Sunday, is expected to run through June 17.gc