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Anthropic Accuses Alibaba of Illicitly Accessing Claude

Australian Financial Review

ENRICHED

Details

Date Published
25 June 2026
Priority Score
4
Australian
Yes
Created
25 June 2026, 02:00 am

Authors (1)

Description

The AI company says Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba used swarms of fake accounts to illicitly “extract” the chatbot’s capabilities.

Summary

Anthropic has alleged that Alibaba's Qwen AI lab conducted a systematic campaign to 'extract' technical capabilities from the Claude model through industrial-scale fraudulent account usage. This incident highlights critical vulnerabilities in frontier AI security and model theft, specifically regarding the unauthorized transfer of advanced agentic reasoning and software engineering capabilities to geopolitical rivals. Such illicit access undermines global safety export controls and poses significant risks to the competitive advantage and safe deployment of high-capability AI systems. The situation underscores the urgent need for robust international governance frameworks to prevent the proliferation of frontier AI models that bypass localized safety guardrails and regulatory oversight.

Body

WorldNorth AmericaAIPrint articleMaggie EastlandJun 25, 2026 – 8.47amWashington | Anthropic accused Chinese technology giant Alibaba of waging a large-scale effort to “illicitly” access its Claude artificial intelligence model using thousands of fraudulent accounts that undermine the US AI developer’s decision to keep its products out of China.Anthropic claimed that a campaign by operators linked to Alibaba’s Qwen AI lab targeted Claude’s most prized capabilities, including software engineering and agentic reasoning, according to a letter that the AI startup sent to several US senators and White House officials.Loading...BloombergSaveLog in or Subscribe to save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? LoginRead MoreAIAnthropicChinaTrump's White HouseOpenAIUS SenateGoogleUSATrump diplomacyTrump's AmericaFetching latest articles