Bankers working for JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong must have been miffed when they were shut off from using artificial intelligence (AI) models from Anthropic, a pioneering American firm in the field.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase pulled the plug in April and last week respectively, based on a strict interpretation of Anthropic’s terms of use, which reflect Washington’s stringent restrictions on China’s access to frontier American AI models.

The banks’ decisions are seen as a potential blow to the competitiveness of the city’s financial sector. In a report, the Financial Times warned that, “Preventing access to the world’s most advanced AI models represents a threat to Hong Kong’s revival as an international financial centre, given their rapid adoption in other parts of the world, particularly for coding.”

A US Commerce Department directive this month means all foreigners are to be denied access to Anthropic’s most advanced Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, including Anthropic’s own foreign employees.