What happened: Reuters reports that U.S. agencies and officials are quietly sidestepping President Trump's ban on working with Anthropic, citing Politico, including a Commerce Department unit testing Anthropic's frontier model "Mythos" for hacking capability.

Why it matters: It is a clean example of policy becoming theater when the incentives are operational. If agencies believe a model could help cyber defense, they will look for procedural paths around a ban, and the real mechanism becomes who can authorize testing and under what controls.

Wider context: This sits inside the larger containment trend: labs roll out restricted-access programs for cyber-capable systems, while governments simultaneously want the capability and want the liability managed. Expect more "ban, but also... briefing."

Background: The Reuters write-up says it could not immediately confirm the Politico report, and notes requests for comment. It also cites Jack Clark saying Anthropic is discussing Mythos with the administration even after Pentagon business was cut off following a contract dispute.

Federal agencies skirt Trump's Anthropic ban to test its advanced AI model, Politico reports — Reuters (via Yahoo News)

Singularity Soup Take: The modern governance loop is: announce a ban, keep the meetings, run the tests. If "trusted access" is the control surface, the real question is not the headline, it is who gets the badge, the logs, and the legal cover.

Key Takeaways:

• Mechanism Over Rhetoric: Even with a formal ban in place, the report describes agencies pursuing testing. The practical lever is internal authorization and oversight, not the presidential press release.
• Cyber Capability Pressure: The specific focus on evaluating hacking or cyber-scanning usefulness shows why restrictions keep turning into tiered access programs: defenders want the tool, and everyone wants the audit trail.
• Market Structure: This is ultimately about who can collaborate, what counts as "working with" a vendor, and how government risk is managed. That is procurement and liability shaping the market, not a mere political fight.