- Dario Amodei claims he does not advocate a ban on open-weight AI models, but adds conditions that effectively restrict them.
- A regulatory system requiring pre-release evaluations, usage monitoring, identity verification, and revocable access favors large proprietary model providers like Anthropic over startups and universities.
- Open-weight models face an inherently harder safety standard because safeguards can be removed, while Anthropic can control Claude's safeguards, illustrating regulatory capture.
- Amodei overlooks benefits of open-weight models: companies can run their own AI without vendor dependency, and researchers can inspect and fine-tune them.
- Protectionism and export controls reduce Western competitiveness and push China to develop its own chips and AI stack, diminishing Western leverage.
- Amodei's concern about 'industrial-scale distillation' is a commercial issue dressed as a strategic threat; Chinese AI will not overtake the US solely via distillation.
- Anthropic has shown hypocrisy: advocating restrictions on powerful AI models, then complaining when its own model is restricted, and engaging in questionable pricing practices.
- The proposed regulatory system may effectively preserve frontier AI for Anthropic while allowing others access only on its terms, without an explicit ban on open weights.