White House Export Bans and Copyright Overhauls Enclose Frontier AI
June 19, 2026
The Trump administration's retaliatory restrictions on Anthropic and SK Telecom signal a shift toward using national security mandates to arbitrarily decouple global AI supply chains. Simultaneously, legislative maneuvers in the U.S. Congress and the European Union are stripping away AI safeguards and reorganizing copyright authority to favor proprietary platform enclosures over public oversight. These combined pressures force a choice between low-cost Chinese models like DeepSeek and a domestic AI infrastructure increasingly defined by executive whim and corporate lobbying.
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When Americans choose Chinese AI
Developers say DeepSeek is good enough for a fraction of the cost. “You don’t need God to write your email.”
- AI governance
- media and technology
- geopolitics
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The Korean Telecom Giant at the Center of Anthropic’s Mythos Controversy
Days before Anthropic took its most advanced AI models offline, the White House ordered the company to revoke SK Telecom’s access to Claude Mythos over claims of alleged ties to China.
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Congress Just Rushed Through A Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul
In a voice vote last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6028, the “Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act.” The legislation is presented as a technical reorganization of some government agencies, but it’s much more than that. H.R. 6028 would fundamentally change the U.S. Copyright…
- media and technology
- AI governance
- structural power
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The AI Omnibus: a rollback of AI safeguards before they even apply
In a joint analysis, several European organizations, including AlgorithmWatch, point out the risks and deficiencies of the recently approved AI Omnibus – and highlight the risks that this process in the name of simplification could have for future legislative procedures.
- AI governance
- structural power
- media and technology
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The Anthropic ‘Fable’ saga proves: we have opened the AI Pandora’s box. What now?
- media and technology
- AI governance
- structural power
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AI Regulation Should Be Rational, Not Retaliatory
The Trump administration’s approach to AI safety, particularly the generative AI models that regularly grab headlines, has been haphazard at best. At worst, it’s unconstitutional. As EFF and our allies explained in an amicus brief, the Pentagon’s actions against one company, Anthropic, violate the F…
- AI governance
- structural power
- media and technology
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Unpacking the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026
On June 4, Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) released a 269-page bipartisan discussion draft of a bill called the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026. On the same date, they published an opinion in Bloomberg Law calling for feedback on the draft. “This discussio…
- AI governance
- media and technology
- structural power
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Big Tech’s desperate last push at AI regulation
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) arrive for a news conference with bipartisan senators on passage of the Online Privacy Protection Act at the Capitol on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC. | Kent Nishimura/Getty Images. For months, Big Tech's Washington lobbyis…
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The White House Is Making Up Its Rules for AI in Real Time
Anthropic still can’t distribute Claude Mythos or Fable 5 after running afoul of the Trump administration. But no one can say exactly what the company did wrong.
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Who decides when AI is too dangerous?
On today’s episode of Decoder, my guest is Hayden Field, senior AI reporter for The Verge. Often when Hayden comes on the show, it’s because something has gone wrong in the world of AI. Last weekend, that something was a pretty intense mix of Anthropic, the Trump administration, and Anthropic’s new…