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VERIFIEDBy Xavier Rivera· ·1.5 min read

Alibaba bans Anthropic's Claude for employees after distillation attack claims

Alibaba has banned employee use of Anthropic's Claude tools starting July 10 and placed Claude Code on a high-risk list after Anthropic accused it of the largest known distillation attack. The move highlights escalating restrictions on U.S. AI models in China amid terms-of-service bans and reported access loopholes.

Source:CNBC Tech

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Alibaba bans Anthropic's Claude for employees after distillation attack claims

TL;DRAI · 60 sec read

Alibaba has banned its employees from using Anthropic's AI tools starting July 10, citing back-door security risks. The Chinese e-commerce giant placed Anthropic's Claude Code on a high-risk software list, according to people familiar with the matter.

Alibaba requires staff to uninstall Anthropic models. Employees must remove all Anthropic models and agent products and switch to the company's own AI assistant, Qoder. The ban applies to work purposes and takes effect on July 10.

Employees must remove all Anthropic models and agent products and switch to the company's own AI assistant, Qoder.

The decision follows Anthropic's June letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In the letter, Anthropic accused Alibaba of "brazenly" and "illicitly" attempting to extract its AI capabilities through what it called "the largest known distillation attack" to date.

Anthropic's terms prohibit use by Chinese companies. The U.S. firm's terms of service ban Chinese companies and other "adversarial nations" from using its models. Alibaba and Anthropic both declined to comment on the ban or the accusations.

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Online backlash and loophole closures add pressure. The ban arrives amid online blowback in China, with posts on Reddit and GitHub highlighting hidden code in Anthropic tools meant to detect users based in the country. The Financial Times reported on July 3 that Anthropic is closing loopholes that allowed Chinese firms to access Claude through third countries.

The U.S. firm's terms of service ban Chinese companies and other "adversarial nations" from using its models.

The report cited sources saying Ant Group provided employees with corporate Claude accounts accessed via its Singapore-based entity. ByteDance, parent of TikTok, does not facilitate access but started a reimbursement program on April 2 allowing engineers to expense personal subscriptions used over VPNs. ByteDance's policy aims to let staff "experience and learn" a wider range of AI products, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ant and ByteDance declined to comment on the Financial Times reporting. The developments underscore growing restrictions and tensions between U.S. AI developers and Chinese tech companies over model access and intellectual property protection.

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