Anthropic Claims Alibaba Ran 'Brazen' Campaign to Access Its Claude AI Model
By Jason Chau
U.S. artificial-intelligence lab Anthropic has accused Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba of "illicitly" accessing its frontier model Claude to harvest its capabilities.
In a letter obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Anthropic alleged that Alibaba and its AI unit conducted "the largest known distillation attack" on the company to date.
Distillation attacks, which involve the illicit training of a less capable model on the outputs of a stronger one, are turning "billions of dollars in American investment and R&D into a massive subsidy for our geopolitical competitors," it said.
The letter, dated June 10, was addressed to U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren, and claimed that Alibaba created almost 25,000 fake accounts to access Claude through nearly 29 million exchanges with the AI model, which is not available to entities in China.
According to the letter, "Alibaba's campaign targeted some of Claude's most valuable capabilities, such as agentic reasoning, software engineering, and long-horizon tasks."
An Anthropic spokesperson declined to comment on the contents of the letter but said: "We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the Administration to maintain American AI leadership."
Alibaba didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
It's not the first time the Anthropic has said Chinese AI labs are using its technology to train their own AI models.
In a blog post in February, Anthropic said it had identified industrial-scale campaigns by three AI laboratories to extract Claude's capabilities.
The latest accusations come after the Trump administration issued a memorandum in April saying that foreign entities, principally based in China, are engaged in industrial-scale campaigns to distill U.S. frontier AI systems.
Anthropic's letter said the company is supportive of Washington's efforts to combat such attacks, while also calling for more action to secure American AI, including tightening chip controls and legislation to penalize AI labs found to be engaging in distillation.
Write to Jason Chau at jason.chau@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 25, 2026 01:37 ET (05:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.The articles, information, and content displayed on this webpage may include materials prepared and provided by third parties. Such third-party content is offered for informational purposes only and is not endorsed, reviewed, or verified by Morningstar.
Morningstar makes no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or reliability of any third-party content displayed on this site. The views and opinions expressed in third-party content are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Morningstar, its affiliates, or employees.
Morningstar is not responsible for any errors, omissions, or delays in this content, nor for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Users are advised to exercise their own judgment and seek independent financial advice before making any decisions based on such content. The third-party providers of this content are not affiliated with Morningstar, and their inclusion on this site does not imply any form of partnership, agency, or endorsement.
Popular
3 Stocks to Sell and 3 Stocks to Buy for November
3 of the Best Dividend Stocks to Own
The 10 Best Companies to Invest in Now
This Once-Hot AI Stock Now Looks Deeply Undervalued
United States