Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, who warned of US recession, 'agrees' with government's restrictions on Anthropic Fable AI models; say: Optimism over AI is warranted, but ...

Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, who also warned of US recession has now shared a new warning. Zandi has warned that White House’s sudden restrictions of Anthropic’s frontier AI models highlight a hidden economic threat.

Sharing his thoughts in a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) Zandi said that the move poses a “massive threat to that optimism, and by extension, the stock market and economy.” His comments come as he continues to caution about the risk of a U.S. recession. Zandi acknowledged that optimism over AI’s potential is warranted but stressed that “the cautious kind seems wisest.” He argued that the abrupt shutdown underscores the vulnerability of markets to regulatory shocks, especially when investor enthusiasm is running high.

Read Mark Zandi’s post here

“It’s tough to ignore the seeming tension that on the same day (last Friday) that SpaceX went public, the U.S. government slapped export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos and Fable LLMs. The SpaceX IPO is the largest in history, by 3x, and embodies the runaway optimism over AI’s prospects. However, the government’s move on Anthropic, forcing the company to pull the leading-edge LLMs from use, highlights a massive threat to that optimism, and by extension, the stock market and economy. It is hard to imagine that the USG won’t quickly come to terms with Anthropic on the use of these LLMs, but it is equally hard to imagine there won’t be lots more government restrictions on AI’s use coming soon. Optimism over AI is warranted, but the cautious kind seems wisest.”

Anthropic models taken offline

On Friday, June 12, AI giant Anthropic was instructed to roll back the release of its most advanced AI models including Fable 5 and Mythos by the Trump administration. According to a report by Axios, the Trump administration asked Anthropic for the roll back after the officials cited a ‘national security threat’. As per the Axios report, Anthropic received a call at 1 pm ET giving just 90 minutes to comply before the new licensing controls would be imposed.

Anthropic had already worked with the government on pre-release testing of Fable and received explicit approval to deploy the model. However, the sudden reversal left the executives scrambling. “We immediately sought to understand the specific nature of the threat so we could remediate it,” an Anthropic source said, though officials held firm on the demand.By 5.30 pm ET, the Commerce Department issued a letter imposing restrictions on where the models could be used and by whom.

Collision with SpaceX IPO

The crackdown coincided with the historic SpaceX IPO, which Zandi described as “the largest in history, by 3x.” Shares of SpaceX (SPCX) opened at $150, an 11.1% premium to the IPO price, and closed nearly 20% higher at $160.95, pushing its market valuation past $2 trillion. The juxtaposition of regulatory restraint on AI and unbridled investor enthusiasm for space exploration highlights the growing tension between Silicon Valley’s commercial expansion and state control.