OpenAI chief Sam Altman moved to secure a deal with the US defense department just hours after the Trump administration blacklisted rival Anthropic, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu has revealed.
In an analysis for Project Syndicate, as reported by "Hvylya", the MIT professor describes the move as a sign that the AI competition "is about to reach dangerous new heights." According to Acemoglu, Altman is "willing to give Hegseth everything Anthropic refused, including capabilities to violate US law and willingness to work on autonomous weapon systems."
The backdrop is an industry where "winner-take-all dynamics, whether real or perceived" had already driven the competition between OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google "to fever pitch." The Anthropic ban - triggered by the company's insistence on safeguards against mass surveillance and autonomous weapons - created an opening that Altman seized almost immediately.
Acemoglu frames the episode as evidence of a broader pattern. Anthropic's designation as a supply-chain risk - a measure "typically reserved for companies from foreign adversaries, such as China's Huawei" - was not really about national security. It was about demonstrating that the administration can crush any company that resists. And the speed of Altman's response shows that the message landed.
The economist warns that this dynamic effectively puts the US government, not the private sector, in the driver's seat on AI development. When a single government decision can destroy a company's business and its competitor rushes to fill the vacuum on any terms offered, the balance of power has shifted fundamentally.
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