China's Tech Giant Takes Action Against AI Tool

Alibaba, one of China's largest tech companies, will prohibit its employees from using Anthropic's Claude Code, a programming tool, starting July 10.

The decision is reportedly due to security concerns, as Anthropic has been working to prevent Chinese users from accessing its models. Anthropic already has a policy in place that prohibits Chinese companies, as well as foreign entities owned by those companies, from using its models. The company has been taking steps to close loopholes that allow Chinese users to access Claude Code, including a version of the tool that could secretly identify Chinese users.

According to Anthropic's Thariq Shihipar, this was "an experiment we launched in March that was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation."

What is Distillation?

Distillation is a practice where AI models are trained on the outputs of other models. This can be a concern for companies like Anthropic, which want to protect their intellectual property and prevent unauthorized use of their models. Anthropic has been working to prevent distillation and has reportedly landed stronger mitigations to prevent account abuse.

• The company has been taking steps to close loopholes that allow Chinese users to access Claude Code
• Alibaba has classified Claude Code as high-risk software and is instructing employees to use the company's own Qoder tool instead
• The ban on Claude Code is set to start on July 10, and employees will be required to use alternative tools for their work