Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has tightened controls to block Chinese companies from accessing its Claude AI models after discovering multiple workarounds used to bypass its restrictions, the Financial Times reports.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said several Chinese companies, including Ant Financial, had gained unauthorized access to Anthropic’s Claude Code through various methods despite the company’s ban on use in China.
According to the report, ByteDance allowed engineers to use personal Claude subscriptions through virtual private networks (VPNs) under a reimbursement programme, while other companies accessed the service through foreign subsidiaries using Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
The moves come after Anthropic last week accused entities affiliated with Alibaba of conducting what it described as a large-scale “distillation” campaign in mid-June, alleging they used about 25,000 fake accounts to generate 29 million interactions with Claude to extract knowledge from the model.
Anthropic prohibits access to Claude from China through user verification requirements and restrictions on payments from Chinese banks.
The company has since moved to close technical loopholes, stepped up efforts to detect unauthorized access and targeted intermediary “transfer station” services that relay requests from China to overseas accounts.
“We explicitly prohibit accessing or facilitating access to Claude in unsupported regions, including China. Anthropic is the only frontier AI company that restricts sales to PRC-controlled companies, including subsidiaries incorporated outside China,” the company said.
“It enforces this policy through continuous, evolving detection systems, working alongside our partners to identify and ban accounts that violate our policies.”
Anthropic, Alibaba, ByteDance, Ant Financial and Microsoft did not immediately respond requests for comment.
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Faustine Ngila is the AI Editor at Impact Newswire, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an award-winning journalist specializing in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and emerging technologies.
He previously worked as a global technology reporter at Quartz in New York and Digital Frontier in London, where he covered innovation, startups, and the global digital economy.
With years of experience reporting on cutting-edge technologies, Faustine focuses on AI developments, industry trends, and the impact of technology on society.
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