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Is the US government’s Anthropic ban accidentally helping the brand? | Equity Podcast

Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails. Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the…

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Just as last week was ending, the US government forced Anthropic to pull its two newest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5, citing national security concerns after Amazon researchers allegedly found a way to bypass Fable 5’s guardrails.

Cybersecurity researchers have since signed an open letter calling the move dangerous, and Anthropic itself noted the same jailbreaks exist in other models. So is this a genuine security concern, or just the latest chapter in a messy relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration?

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan unpack what the ban means for developers building on Anthropic’s platform and for anyone watching the IPO, why it might accidentally be good for the company, and more of the week’s headlines.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:28 The US government pulls Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5

03:57 Cybersecurity researchers push back on the ban

06:33 Could the ban actually help Anthropic’s business?

12:26 The UK’s sweeping social media ban for users under 16

21:34 SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B in stock

28:53 Jeff Bezos’s $12B bet on physical AI with Prometheus

32:04 Outro

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. @doubledragon9530

    June 19, 2026 at 7:34 pm

    Opus 4.8 was significantly better than 4.7, I mean qualitatively better. It still got confused on long analyses, however, but Fable, man that thing never let go of its focus, whatever you were exploring, it stayed focused right there with you. I was in the middle of two substantial projects just three days in when they pulled it, and I those two projects are now on hold because, as good as Opus 4.8 is, I’m certain it won’t do as good a job and will require significantly more work from me to bring those to completion. Also, if anything needs to be slowed down, it’s the creation and use of agentic tools because that is where the real security risk is right now, poisoned tools. Check out exploits of Openclaw and vcode to name just two attack surfaces. Adversaries aren’t going after jailbreaking text prompts anymore, they are going after backdooring tools. All of that needs to be locked down, not the models themselves.

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Science & Technology

Don’t Give VCs More Leverage Than You Have To

Investors know when a founder is desperate. Sasha Orloff has raised a collective $1 billion in his career and he shares his advice for staying on top of your financial situation. Listen to the full episode of Build Mode with Puzzle’s founder and CEO:

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Investors know when a founder is desperate. Sasha Orloff has raised a collective $1 billion in his career and he shares his advice for staying on top of your financial situation.

Listen to the full episode of Build Mode with Puzzle’s founder and CEO:

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The Singularity Isn’t the Real Reason Stripe Paid $7.5B for OpenRouter

Stripe claims “the singularity” is here, and justifies its $7.5B acquisition of OpenRouter. The truth, as the Equity podcast crew highlights, is much more practical, as unglamorous as token expense management may seem:

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Stripe claims “the singularity” is here, and justifies its $7.5B acquisition of OpenRouter.

The truth, as the Equity podcast crew highlights, is much more practical, as unglamorous as token expense management may seem:

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Why is the DOJ investigating Andreessen Horowitz over board seats? | Equity Podcast

Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except ⁠the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement ⁠for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that’s rarely…

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Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except ⁠the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement ⁠for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that’s rarely used against VCs. 

Board conflicts aren’t exactly new, and these companies weren’t necessarily direct competitors when a16z first invested in them. But as portfolio companies expand into each other’s markets, the DOJ’s scrutiny raises a much bigger question for venture firms: How do you manage board seats when the boundaries between your portfolio companies keep moving? 
 
On this episode of TechCrunch’s⁠ Equity⁠ podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week’s headlines. 

Subscribe to Equity on ⁠YouTube⁠,⁠ Apple Podcasts⁠,⁠ Overcast⁠,⁠ Spotify⁠ and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on⁠ X⁠ and⁠ Threads⁠, at @EquityPod. 
 
Chapters: 
 
00:00 Intro 
1:02 TechCrunch Disrupt and the Startup Battlefield 200 
3:17 The DOJ is investigating a16z over board seats 
14:47 Why Stripe just paid $7.5B for “the Stripe for AI” 
18:18 The mid-tier AI scramble: gateways, pivots, and acquihires 
23:17 Anthropic’s revenue surges while OpenAI’s losses deepen 
27:08 Also raises $150M and drops the “micro mobility” label 
32:30 Uber teams up with Zipline for drone delivery 
37:19 Wispr hits a $2B valuation 
38:26 Outro

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