I think we are in largely uncharted territory here, especially given the implications. Is Anthropic's approach optimal? Probably not. But given the stakes involved, gating access seems like a reasonable place to start.
I'm curious about how gated access actually holds over time, especially given that historically with dual-use capabilities containment tends to erode, whether through leaks, independent rediscovery, or gradual normalization of access.
Gated access is happening because of low computing capacity and to create demand. They had the $125/M tokens price already in place when they announced the model.