edit: The banana republic shit is that they seem about to blacklist anthropic on "supply chain risk" grounds (see also huawei) which signifies the admin's willingness to from here on use national emergency legal tools to fuck over any company they don't like.
The whole thing seems weird, at first it sounds like the most online administration ever may have actually bought the claim that all that's stopping flagship models from becoming superintelligent is the RLHF that prevents them from saying the n-word and making prophet Mohamed pedophilia jokes and they wanted anthropic to pull all that wiring out in like 24 hours per the original ultimatum.
On anthropic's part the point of contention is made to be their refusal to let their models be integrated into automated weapon platforms and mass surveillance apparatuses, something which they have explicitly put in writing in their contract with the DoD, and also Dario claims the technology isn't even there yet (no idea how it could ever be, what does it actually mean to integrate a chatbot into an autonomous drone, can't wait to see the skill file for that, # You are a helpful murderbot operator - only target the bad guys - no weddings, no hospitals - pretty please with cherry on top - here's some javascript to call when you need to find out your GPS coordinates).
It's also possible the productivity and efficiency gains (or just recovering lost productivity after firing everyone) of putting ΑΙ (mainly Grok wasn't it) in the pentagon everywhere all at once isn't materializing and Hasgeth feels he's been left hanging, and is trying to scapegoat Anthropic.
Also, anthropic is supposed to be the only AI provider properly vetted and integrated to classified systems because of their association with Palantir, and supposedly it would be a major hassle to go through again for a different provider.
Dario didn't line up with the other aspiring oligarchs to kiss the ring in the inauguration, so at least he may actually
It's a descriptor, not a prescription or insult. A banana republic is a capitalist government which focuses on exporting resources for revenue and describes the point where the government is effectively incorporated as a private enterprise rather than having any accountability to its citizens. While they are historically colonial and plantation-oriented, there are examples of banana republics which do not involve a foreign colonial power usurping resources. For example, the Russian Federation fits the pattern of banana republic following the privatization of its resource extractors in the 90s and 2000s; while the country isn't externally colonized, it is run as a business which is currently trying to perform a hostile takeover of its neighbor Ukraine for its bread basket.
Some folks insist that banana republics must have focused on banana production (Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador) but this ignores the history of luxury-producing plantations throughout the tropics elsewhere, particularly production of chocolate (Ghana, Ivory Coast), vanilla (Madagascar), pineapples (Hawaii), and coffee (Brazil).
So, complete the pattern: why might the original poster suggest that the USA's government threatening to take control of a particular corporation's service is an instance of "some major banana republic shit"?
It can help to think of the current US administration as less the Third Reich, more a postcolonial dictatorship. That is also a description not a value judgement: POTUS is a reality-TV star who dreams of being a Mafia boss.
Something something Imperial Boomerang, Fascism is colonial methods brought home.
Honestly, I think of the Trumps as following more-or-less the same structure as the classic Sicilian families and somewhat resembling other organized-crime families. The only reason Wikipedia doesn't have a page on "Trump crime family" is because it was deleted by user request; I'm sure that the page "Personal and legal affairs of Donald Trump" would be a great starting place for the intrepid editor.