In a twist that feels both predictable and jarring, the artificial intelligence industry is now getting exactly what it once said it wanted: clear guidance from the federal government on what is not acceptable. But the way it’s happening has left major players unhappy, according to a recent report from Politico. The report details how OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the most prominent frontier AI labs, are now dealing with the consequences of their own earlier calls for regulation.
Dean Ball, recently hired by OpenAI as “Head of Strategic Futures,” summed up the sentiment in Politico: “[T]here are things the administration is doing that I’m not so much of a fan of, in terms of the abruptness and the opacity and the strictness, but the more fundamental point is that I’m glad they’ve arrived to the conclusion that they have — to take this stuff seriously.”
The Dentist’s Warning
When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went before Congress in 2023, he used language that was strikingly honest for a tech executive. “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that,” he said, adding, “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.” The analogy of a dentist showing a child all the scary tools before extracting a tooth has been used to describe this approach. Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei essentially told the public: “This is going to hurt, and we don’t want to be the ones who get blamed.”
Amodei, in his 2024 essay “The Adolescence of Technology,” wrote that humanity’s ability to navigate the coming AI upheaval “will depend on our character and our determination as a species, our spirit and our soul.” He warned that “The years in front of us will be impossibly hard, asking more of us than we think we can give.”
But there is a crucial difference between Big AI and a dentist: the American public did not ask for this treatment. The “dentists” arrived unbidden, with no certifications and incredible promises that most people cannot take seriously. Yet, to their credit, they have at least shown us what is on the tray — a gesture the public has not received warmly.
Public Distrust and Action
Public sentiment is overwhelmingly skeptical. According to a survey conducted by Anthropic itself, only 15% of Americans trust AI companies to make decisions about how AI is developed and used. Seven in ten oppose building data centers in their communities, and an overwhelming majority want development to slow down. Perhaps most telling: 87% of respondents believe it is either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that within the next 20 years foreign governments will use AI to attack the United States.
Despite this public mood, the Trump administration initially took a very different stance. In a February 2025 speech in Paris, Vice President JD Vance declared that no significant AI regulation was coming and that everyone had better get used to it. Attempts at regulation, he argued, “would not only unfairly benefit incumbents in the space, it would mean paralyzing one of the most promising technologies we have seen in generations.” The administration seemed unconcerned about the tools on the tray — it wanted the most lethal instruments possible and wanted to be the only one controlling them.
That position held until this month, when the Trump administration suddenly reversed course on one specific company: Anthropic. The administration declared Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 model a supply chain risk and effectively imposed a moratorium on new releases. The move surprised the industry and sent shockwaves through the AI ecosystem.
The New Reality
“The administration’s current actions have resulted in an almost complete moratorium on new releases,” Saif Khan, a former Biden administration tech advisor, told Politico. “And that’s going to start seriously impacting companies’ bottom lines.” OpenAI and Anthropic are suffering together. OpenAI’s new GPT 5.6 series is being rolled out only to a small group of VIP customers while the company tries to work with the administration to avoid the same fate as Anthropic. But the language from OpenAI betrays frustration: “We don’t believe this kind of government access process should become the long-term default,” the company wrote.
An anonymous policy advisor for frontier AI companies described the climate as one where companies are “walking on eggshells.” Meanwhile, cybersecurity experts warned that rival labs in China will seize on the disorder, pushing ahead with their own AI development while U.S. firms try to figure out what is and isn’t allowed.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration released an Executive Order requesting — not demanding — that AI companies submit their models for federal vetting. OpenAI claims to be cooperating to “develop the cyber Executive Order framework and a repeatable process for future model releases.” But the current regulatory landscape bypasses Congress entirely. What is acceptable for AI companies now depends largely on whether President Trump is pleased with what he sees. He reportedly does not like guardrails that can be jailbroken (like Fable 5’s allegedly could) and does not want China-linked groups accessing frontier models during VIP-only periods.
We now live in the painful future that Big AI CEOs warned us about. The president has paused the dental procedure, but the tools remain on the tray, and the pause looks temporary. The administration has signaled that little will change fundamentally, and the drilling will likely resume soon — only this time with the dentist looking over the shoulder of every patient.
Source:Gizmodo News