Anthropic details distillation campaigns from Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek

Live updates

1. 3d ago

   Anthropic Accuses Chinese AI Firms of 190 Million Claude Distillation Attacks

   Anthropic reports that Chinese AI labs launched nearly 190 million distillation attacks against Claude models between May and July 2026. The company identifies Alibaba, Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Zhipu, and Xiaomi as participants in a campaign to extract knowledge from its frontier models. Anthropic claims Moonshot and DeepSeek secretly routed real user requests through intermediate platforms to Claude to clone its capabilities. China has rejected these claims of malicious activity, though the government remains willing to hold AI talks with the US ahead of planned meetings between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

   Why it matters

   AI distillation involves using a powerful model to generate training data for a smaller, cheaper model. These accusations suggest a systemic effort to bypass US export controls by cloning frontier AI capabilities. The dispute adds tension to US-China diplomatic relations regarding technology security.

   What is confirmed

   • Anthropic accused Alibaba, Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Zhipu, and Xiaomi of launching nearly 190 million distillation attacks against Claude between May and July 2026.
   • Anthropic claims Moonshot and DeepSeek secretly routed user requests to Claude.
   • China has denied US claims that its AI distillation efforts are malicious.
   • China expressed willingness to hold AI talks with the US.

   Still unconfirmed

   • Distillation attacks on Claude grew 12-fold between May and July 2026.
   • Six Chinese AI firms are aggressively copying US frontier models.
   • Alibaba stock dropped 2.6% because the US views AI distillation as a security threat.

   What to watch next

   • Results of the planned Trump-Xi talks regarding AI security
   • Official responses from Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Moonshot AI
   • Further evidence of intermediate platforms used to route user requests
   Sources used for this update (16)

   1. AP News — China hits back at US claims of ‘malicious’ AI distillation ahead of planned Trump-Xi talks
   2. Bloomberg.com — China ‘Willing’ to Hold AI Talks With US Despite Row Over Models
   3. arstechnica.com — Six Chinese AI firms accused of aggressively copying US frontier models
   4. TechCrunch — Anthropic details distillation campaigns from Alibaba, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek
   5. Bloomberg.com — Moonshot Secretly Routed User Requests Through Claude, Anthropic Says
   6. WSJ — How Chinese AI Firms Tried to Clone U.S. AI Models
   7. CNBC — Chinese AI labs secretly used millions of Claude exchanges to train their models, Anthropic says
   8. Yahoo Finance — Alibaba Drops 2.6% as U.S. Turns AI Distillation Into a Security Threat
   9. South China Morning Post — Anthropic claims Moonshot, DeepSeek secretly diverted user requests to Claude
   10. Foundation for Defense of Democracies — How China Is Stealing America’s AI
   11. WSJ — Chinese AI Firms Try to Clone U.S. Rivals
   12. WSJ — The Morning Risk Report: How Chinese AI Firms Tried to Clone U.S. AI Models
   confidence 90%