Four days after the US effectively locked non-Americans out of its most powerful AI models, G7 leaders sat down to dinner in the French Alps and tried to figure out how to partially unlock the door.
The discussion, which took place on June 16 during the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, centered on a proposed “trusted partners” framework. The idea: create a vetted list of allied nations and approved companies that would be exempt from the broad restrictions the US imposed on June 12.
What happened and why it matters
On June 12, US authorities implemented sweeping restrictions that suspended foreign access to advanced frontier AI models. Anthropic responded by disabling access for non-US users entirely. The move sent shockwaves through the global tech and research communities, essentially cutting off allies and adversaries alike from some of the most capable AI systems on the planet.
At the summit, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took the lead in pitching the exemption framework to counterparts from the other six nations. The proposed scheme would allow vetted entities from allied countries to regain access to models developed by companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.
