Alibaba bans employees from using Anthropic's Claude Code

s Claude Code">

China’s Alibaba will ban employees from using Anthropic’s programming tool Claude Code, starting on July 10, according to multiple reports. Anthropic already prohibits Chinese companies, as well as foreign entities owned by those companies, from using its models. The company has reportedly been working to close loopholes that allow Chinese users to access Claude.

According to a recent Reddit post, some of that loophole-closing involved a version of Claude Code that could secretly identify Chinese users. Anthropic’s Thariq Shihipar said in a post on X that this was “an experiment we launched in March that was meant to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation.” (Distillation is a practice where AI models are trained on the outputs of other models.) “The team has landed stronger mitigations since then and we’ve actually been meaning to take this down for a while,” Shihipar said. Nonetheless, Alibaba has reportedly 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 at Alibaba highlights the increasing scrutiny on AI tools and their potential risks. This move signals a tighter grip on AI usage within Chinese companies, reflecting growing concerns over data security and intellectual property. For developers and businesses, this means they must navigate an evolving regulatory environment where access to powerful AI tools can be abruptly restricted.

As AI continues to play a crucial role in software development, companies like Alibaba are seeking to mitigate risks through in-house solutions. However, questions remain about the long-term implications of such restrictions on innovation and global collaboration in the tech industry.