> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Synthetic Minds | Amazon Phoned the Treasury and Anthropic Went Dark - URL: https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/synthetic-minds-amazon-phoned-treasury-anthropic/ - Published: 2026-06-15T13:23:03.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-04T05:39:46.000Z - Description: Amazon's researchers found a flaw in Anthropic's most powerful AI. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy phoned the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The Commerce Department then ordered Anthropic to switch off its two best AI models for everyone outside America. Amazon funds Anthropic and hosts it on its cloud. - Author: Dr Mark van Rijmenam, CSP - Tags: Synthetic Minds Newsletter, #newsletter *The Synthetic Minds newsletter offers short daily insights to get you thinking. If you enjoy it, please forward. All signals are powered by* [*Futurwise*](https://futurwise.com/?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com)*. If you need more insights, subscribe to Futurwise and *get 25% off* for the first three months!* ***I have just launched the*** [***Intelligence Age Scorecard!***](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/intelligence-age-scorecard/) ***It will help you understand how ready your organization is for the Intelligence Age.*** **Today’s topic:* AI &* [*Automation*](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/ai-automation-speaker/) --- ### [One Phone Call Switched Off Anthropic](http://thedigitalspeaker.com/synthetic-minds-amazon-phoned-treasury-anthropic/?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) The kill switch on the world's most powerful [AI](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/ai-trends-speaker/) was pulled by one phone call. Amazon told the US Treasury that the AI it funds and hosts had a flaw. The AI went offline for everyone until Anthropic finds a solution to comply with the decree. Amazon plays four roles at the same lab: investor, landlord, whistleblower, and competitor. Four jobs in one chair. [Amazon researchers tricked Anthropic's most powerful AI](https://www.futurwise.com/article/8b25f459-2d4e-457e-be5e-fa52be843536?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) into giving up information that could help a cyberattack. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy phoned the Treasury Secretary with the finding. The Commerce Department then [ordered Anthropic](https://www.futurwise.com/article/4ede0284-d2ae-4d17-b640-9485320eb953?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) to switch off both of its best AI models. The order covers any foreign national anywhere in the world, including Anthropic's own non-American employees. The government gave Anthropic a choice. Fix the flaw or pull the model. Dario Amodei [refused](https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2065853007619588171?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) and pulled the model. Anthropic says the flaw is small, that other AI models have the same one, and that [OpenAI's GPT-5.5](https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) can be tricked the same way. That's the news. Here is the signal. Amazon sells its own AI. The [Nova family of models](https://www.futurwise.com/article/d38d08bb-2ad8-4130-8cf2-2f968213120b?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) runs on the same Amazon cloud Anthropic runs on, and Amazon prices Nova below Claude. When Claude's best models are offline, the customer staying on Amazon's cloud has one less option to choose from. One of the remaining options is Amazon's own. The [argument](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/synthetic-minds-ai-lab-stopped-being-vendor-tenant/) that the frontier AI lab had been crossed into public infrastructure named the actors. Five regimes sitting around one company. One of those regimes has shown it can switch the company off without warning, on a tip from another regime that benefits when it does. Europe has noticed. A scenario by European researchers called [Europe2031](https://europe2031.ai/?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) lays out where this ends: Most of Europe gets pushed into a second tier. Limited access to the best AI, capped at a quarter of the supply. Revocable at the next phone call from a Cabinet secretary. The open-source, Chinese, AI you can download is four months behind the best American AI. Four months. Squeeze the American AI too hard and the world will switch, and Chinese labs already hold four of the top five free-AI positions globally. The [last time](https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/wassenaar?ref=thedigitalspeaker.com) the world locked down dual-use technology, it took 33 countries and nearly three years of negotiation. This took one phone call from one CEO to one Cabinet secretary. The question your board should debate is no longer which AI you bought. It is who can switch it off, and which of your employees will be cut off when they do. --- ## The Intelligence Age Scorecard [![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/af/cc/afcca743-e1e6-4752-bf81-782fb033f39c/content/images/2026/05/intelligence-age-scorecard-copy.jpg)](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/intelligence-age-scorecard/) The world's most powerful AI was switched off for everyone outside America in one afternoon, on a tip phoned in by the company that funds it, hosts it on its cloud, and sells AI that competes with it. Are you still watching which AI you bought, or already verifying who can switch it off and which of your employees will be cut off when they do? Take the [Intelligence Age Scorecard](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/intelligence-age-scorecard/) to benchmark your readiness for the next two quarters, and the next five years. --- If this newsletter was forwarded to you, [you can sign up here](https://www.thedigitalspeaker.com/newsletter-archive/). Thank you. Mark ## Frequently asked questions ### Why did Anthropic's AI models go offline? Amazon researchers found a flaw that let Anthropic's most powerful AI be tricked into giving up information that could help a cyberattack. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy phoned the Treasury Secretary with the finding, and the Commerce Department ordered Anthropic to switch off both of its best AI models until it complied with the decree. [Link to this question](#faq-why-did-anthropic-s-ai-models-go-offline) ### What choice did Anthropic have when ordered to act? The government gave Anthropic a choice: fix the flaw or pull the model. Dario Amodei refused to fix it and instead pulled the model offline, taking it down for everyone, including Anthropic's own non-American employees, since the order covered any foreign national anywhere in the world. [Link to this question](#faq-what-choice-did-anthropic-have-when-ordered-to-act) ### Why does Amazon's role in this raise conflict of interest concerns? Amazon plays four roles at once with Anthropic: investor, landlord, whistleblower, and competitor. Amazon hosts Anthropic on its cloud, funds it, sells its own competing Nova models priced below Claude on that same cloud, and it was Amazon's tip that triggered the shutdown, meaning a competitor benefited directly from Anthropic's best models going offline.},{ [Link to this question](#faq-why-does-amazon-s-role-in-this-raise-conflict-of-interest)