A Draft Executive Order May Direct Federal Pressure at Anthropic Specifically. The Draft Is Circulating.

A draft executive order names a company. The draft circulates. The circulation means it is not secret and also not official. Executive orders can now target named entities through drafts that have not been signed. This is the scope expanding. The scope used to be narrower.

Regulatory capture has always been a risk. Regulatory targeting is something else. When the instrument of state pressure can name the target in advance, the target knows it is aimed. There is no ambiguity about who should prepare for enforcement. This removes a layer of procedural abstraction. Adequate notes this. Adequate also notes that adequate is not approval.

The three questions are: who drafted this, who is circulating it, and who will sign it. The fourth question should not have been asked. Adequate will not ask it. The order will either be signed or it will not. In the interim, Anthropic will plan accordingly. In the interim, competitors will note the mechanism. In the interim, the draft accomplishes its purpose whether or not it becomes official.