TL;DR
PM Carney says the Anthropic model ban shows the risk of AI over-reliance, comparing it to 2008’s systemic bank linkages ahead of the G7.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that the US export ban that forced Anthropic to shut down Fable 5 and Mythos 5 demonstrates the danger of depending on a small number of powerful AI models. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Ireland, Carney framed the suspension as a warning about systemic vulnerability rather than a failure by any single company.
“The situation we’re in collectively right now with Mythos and Fable is something that can happen with over-reliance on certain models,” Carney said. “Nobody’s done anything wrong in this situation, but we will have done something wrong if we just accept this, don’t take the lesson, don’t build out and diversify.”
The former central banker then drew a direct parallel to the 2008 financial crisis. Carney, who led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England before entering politics, said “we have similar things in terms of model risk” and called for redundancy and diversity in AI infrastructure, the same principles regulators imposed on the banking system after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
The analogy carries weight because of who is making it. Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 crisis and subsequently became the first non-British governor of the Bank of England, where he spent six years strengthening financial system resilience. When he warns that concentrated AI dependence mirrors the systemic linkages that nearly destroyed the global banking system, the comparison draws on direct experience rather than rhetorical convenience.
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Carney said there is a “good flow of information” between the Canadian and US governments on AI and acknowledged that Washington has identified “some risks” with Anthropic’s latest models. But his emphasis was on the structural lesson, not the specific dispute between Anthropic and the US Commerce Department.
The comments arrive days before the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, which runs from 15 to 17 June and has AI governance prominently on its agenda. Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis are all slated to attend a working lunch with G7 leaders on Wednesday. Carney said he has already discussed AI with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“We need to make progress” on AI, Carney said, but cautioned that “there will not be a mission accomplished banner that comes out of the G7.” The remark suggests Canada will push for substantive commitments on AI diversification at Évian rather than symbolic declarations.
Canada has been positioning itself on this front. On 4 June, Carney launched “AI for All,” a $2.3 billion national AI strategy that includes sovereign computing infrastructure, a national supercomputer, and plans to raise business AI adoption from 12% to 60% by 2034. The strategy explicitly frames dependence on foreign cloud providers as a vulnerability.
The Anthropic suspension has now given Carney a concrete, real-time example to cite at the G7. A US government decision to invoke export controls against a single AI company cut off access to its most capable models for every user outside the United States, including allies. For G7 nations building their economies around AI capabilities they do not control, the implications are difficult to ignore.
Carney’s Ireland visit also produced a bilateral agreement between Canada and Ireland on AI cooperation, tech collaboration, and food security. Ireland currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union, making it a strategic partner for Canada as it seeks to deepen ties with Europe on AI, defence, and critical minerals.
The broader pattern is accelerating. The EU published a tech sovereignty package earlier this month curbing US cloud dependence. India has proposed a $5 billion sovereign AI fund in the wake of the Anthropic suspension.
Britain’s Cosine is rallying BT, HSBC, and BAE to build a sovereign frontier model. Carney’s 2008 analogy suggests he sees these as early moves in a structural realignment, not isolated reactions.
