Amazon Warned Washington? Anthropic Shutdown, AI Pricing Crisis & Data Center Backlash

In this episode of Hashtag Trending, Jim Love examines new reporting suggesting Amazon raised concerns with U.S. officials before the government restricted access to Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, raising questions about why the company was reportedly given only minutes to respond and whether the official explanation fully accounts for the decision. The show also looks at the expiration of a major U.S. federal data-centre oversight framework at the same time public opposition to data-centre projects is growing across the country. Communities are increasingly pushing back over electricity demand, water consumption, environmental impacts and taxpayer subsidies, with Arizona becoming the latest state to reconsider incentives. Jim also reviews new allegations involving Flock Safety's AI-powered licence-plate tracking system after investigators uncovered multiple cases where police officers allegedly used the technology to monitor romantic partners and family members. Finally, the episode explores a growing problem facing the AI industry itself: some of its most valuable customers may actually be unprofitable. New analysis suggests heavy users of premium AI subscriptions can consume thousands of dollars in computing resources while paying only a fraction of the cost, even as OpenAI reportedly considers more aggressive pricing to compete with Anthropic. Stories include: Amazon's role in the Anthropic shutdown controversy Expiring U.S. data-centre oversight rules Growing resistance to AI infrastructure projects Alleged abuse of Flock surveillance technology OpenAI, Anthropic and the economics of AI subscriptions Why AI companies may be losing money on their best customers   For the thumbnail, I'd go with: