Since launching this newsletter, I've kept circling one question: who governs AI, and how?

I've written about the vacuum left by Congress, the patchwork of state-led rules rushing to fill it, the strange spectacle of AI companies lobbying for their own regulation, the Pope's warning that the technology should not disregard human dignity, and a steady drip of administration executive orders.

Then this weekend those all collided, when the federal government reached into the market and shut down Claude Fable 5 three days after launch.

The abstract debate over who controls frontier AI just turned into a live demonstration of how much power the government actually holds. Today we focus on the anatomy of that decision and what it means for anyone building, buying, or betting on AI in government.

What's Inside

Let's get into it.