NewsNTech
Anthropic has accused Alibaba of running a deliberate campaign to "brazenly" and "illicitly" extract artificial intelligence capabilities from its systems, according to a letter obtained by CNBC.
The letter characterizes the alleged operation as "the largest known distillation attack on Anthropic to date" — framing that signals Anthropic views this as a structural threat, not a one-off access violation.
What the Accusation Says The letter, which CNBC obtained and reported on, lays out Anthropic's position that Alibaba conducted a coordinated extraction effort rather than incidental or accidental misuse.
The choice of words matters here: "brazenly" implies scale visible enough not to hide; "illicitly" implies the conduct violated terms of service, law, or both.
Keep reading