Jim Epstein

Executive Editor, @Reason magazine

[Jim Epstein @jimepstein]

Watch my four-part @reason documentary series about the roots of #Bitcoin https://t.co/l8yZjtcC04

[FIRE @TheFIREorg]

STATEMENT: Late last week, the federal government imposed export controls on Anthropic’s Fable 5 and Mythos 5 artificial intelligence models, citing national security concerns. The government action reportedly bans Anthropic from allowing foreign governments, foreign companies, and foreign individuals from using these systems. The directive, which reportedly came in the form of a letter from Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to Anthropic, is still not public. In response, Anthropic shut down access to these systems for all users, regardless of nationality or location.

The government’s demand that Anthropic effectively shut down its models to comply with the export controls threatens core First Amendment rights.

Artificial intelligence models are expressive tools, and their creation and use fall within the First Amendment’s protection. Mythos and Fable — the company’s cutting-edge tools made publicly available only last week — reflect deliberate expressive choices by Anthropic about how to train and weight these models, and what guardrails to create and maintain. Once in a user’s hands, this technology provides the ability to gather, create, and share information. Like any tool, AI has both lawful and unlawful applications. But the government has offered no public explanation as to why export controls were justified.

By demanding Anthropic eliminate access solely for foreign users — a functional impossibility, per the company — the government is exercising the kind of “kill switch” on artificial intelligence we have seen repressive regimes abroad use on the internet.

By leaving the public in the dark as to the specific threat identified and the statutory authority invoked to address it, the government’s dramatic action functions as an arbitrary abuse of power. The export controls serve as a prior restraint or a licensing system, requiring Anthropic to receive government approval as a condition of operating expressive systems.

If left unchecked, the administration’s assertion of control would allow it to censor models that contradict the government's preferred views or punish developers who oppose the administration. And other AI companies and users are now forced to grapple with uncertainty regarding what they may develop, deploy, and engage with without crossing the administration’s invisible line.

The administration’s action follows President Trump making plain his hostility to Anthropic, calling it a “radical left, woke” company, a stance shared by members of his cabinet. Last March, the administration deemed Anthropic insufficiently "patriotic" over model guardrails it disagreed with — ultimately designating it a "supply chain risk," again citing national security grounds. But simply invoking national security does not immunize government officials from their constitutional obligations or give them carte blanche to punish speech.

Heavy-handed, arbitrary, behind-the-scenes governmental bullying is anathema to our free society, in any form. And its unacceptability is at its apex when directed to an endeavor that is inherently expressive, as is the creation and use of tools like Fable and Mythos.

[Germania Rodriguez Poleo @iamGermania]

The families of political prisoners are holding a vigil outside the US embassy in Caracas tonight. Since Maduro’s arrest 5 months ago, Delcy Rodriguez’ dictatorship has lied over and over again about releasing Venezuelas hundreds of political prisoners.

[David Goldhill @david_goldhill]

"Medicare and Medicaid fraud become the political gifts that keep on giving. Politicians can appear serious about health-care costs without confronting the hard decisions." https://t.co/LumbnoJR2b

[Chris Freiman @cafreiman]

When the city is a bad landlord, its properties should be privatized.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

This is an actual page on the White House web site. It reads like something written about a third world dictator. So embarrassing. I have not seen any branch of the federal government sink this low in my lifetime.

[Ephie Bernstein @EphieBernstein]

How the Billionaire Tax Could Make California Poorer

One upcoming ballot measure would expand the state's taxing power. A lesser-known measure would limit it. Which will win?

By @veroderugy

https://t.co/iAyUcsTmiP

[Eric Boehm @EricBoehm87]

"The French health ministry has classified nicotine as a 'toxic substance' and justified the ban as necessary to curb rising dependency on the chemical compound."

So they are also banning cigarettes, right? Lol of course not, because it's France.

[Germania Rodriguez Poleo @iamGermania]

Y pensar que nosotros todavía no sabemos ni la mitad de lo que nos ha hecho la dictadura chavista. A cuantos han desaparecido y matado? Cuantos que no tenían una Carmen Navas?

[Germania Rodriguez Poleo @iamGermania]

Deniz was the journalist who uncovered Saab’s massive corruption scheme and had to flee Venezuela as a result. Check out his reporting. felicidades, Roberto!

[Adam Lehodey @adamlehodey]

New York's one million rent-stabilized apartments are now significantly CHEAPER than they were a decade ago, owing to persistent below-inflation rent-increase caps. But don't be fooled: this is no free lunch — we end up paying anyway. Here's why, in the short thread below 👇🏼

[Reihan Salam @reihan]

Incredible that NYC taxpayers will still be paying for this year’s pension gimmick into the 2030s.

[Jack Shafer @jackshafer]

Tom Hazlett has the best take on the rise of Ted Turner in @reason. https://t.co/CyrH21Prsq

[Nick Gillespie @nickgillespie]

Is @reason's video on climate change arlarmism a 'masterclass in manipulation'? @hankgreen says yes, but the creator of the vid, stats prof & quant investor Aaron Brown, defends his work and shows his math. https://t.co/2jpeCuyDbD

[Reihan Salam @reihan]

Common thread for many housing and public-safety laws Albany has passed since 2019: while they're ostensibly at protecting the vulnerable, they instead tend to reward intensely antisocial, cynical, and destructive people who terrorize their neighbors.

[Clifford Asness @CliffordAsness]

This comment looking better and better:

As Asness of AQR Capital Management says, "We still don't know if Rand's heroes are realistic. We can debate that. But I'd say these days that the jury is in that her villains are pretty realistic."

[Reihan Salam @reihan]

One argument for the pied-à-terre tax is that it will discourage the warehousing of housing units. Though the number of privately-owned $5M+ pieds-à-terre is negligible, the argument has a surface plausibility because there really is an “underuse” problem — it’s the tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units that are being used unlawfully as pieds-à-terre, despite the fact that the point of rent stabilization (I think?) is to provide stability to renters who need it.

See @JKetcham91’s latest: https://t.co/dWVFDcVy1F

[Marc Novicoff @MarcNovicoff]

How to spend more than $40,000 per pupil: diagnose 22% of the kids as disabled, get a 9:1 pupil-to-teacher ratio, make it illegal to cut the budget as enrollment swiftly declines, and stop anyone from changing the laws. Then, increase the budget.
https://t.co/0Ud5DmHuAJ

[Danyela Souza Egorov @dany_egorov]

“As New York City becomes more expensive to live in, fewer families with children live there. The education budget nonetheless continues to go up, hurting taxpayers and diverting funds from other important services. This makes the city even more expensive to live in, and leaves young families even more squeezed, causing even fewer children to live there. The situation stems from the commendable liberal impulse to devote extensive resources to public education. But what’s the point of public education without a public to educate?”

[Kane 謝凱堯 @kane]

Reminder that according to the NYC Public Advocate, by far the worst landlord in NYC is the government itself, but Mamdani tried to exempt NYCHA from complaints in his new landlord complaint system:

[Adam Lehodey @adamlehodey]

If New York City had a functional housing market, there'd be far less need for the city to go around "inspecting" properties, and you certainly wouldn't need tenant unions. Instead, just knowing that there's competition and tenants could move elsewhere is enough of an incentive for landlords to maintain their properties. The fact that laws have massively restricted development (and thus competition), coupled with rent-stabilization measures that prevent landlords from recouping the value of investments, mean tenants need to spend an increasing amount of time entangled in bureacracy and fighting cases in housing courts that are crippling under the pressure. Things don't need to be this way...