A personal essay arguing that Anthropic's decision to restrict access to its most capable AI model (Mythos) exclusively to enterprise partners represents a dangerous closing of the digital frontier. Drawing parallels to Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis and colonialism, the author contends that concentrating state-scale AI capabilities in a handful of well-connected corporations creates a neofeudal dynamic, undermines independent safety research, and forecloses the permissionless innovation that made the internet a great equalizer. The author calls for due process, publicly disclosed access criteria, and a default presumption of access with guardrails rather than gatekeeping by pedigree.
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