Alibaba Bans Employees From Using Anthropic's Claude Code Tool

Chinese technology giant Alibaba has officially imposed a ban on its employees from using the Claude Code programming tool developed by Anthropic. The decision, expected to take effect from July 10, is being assessed not only as a security measure but also as the next stage of political and technological confrontation in the global artificial intelligence market. Techcrunch.com reports .

In fact, US-based Anthropic had already restricted Chinese companies and their foreign affiliates from using its models. However, many users were finding ways to access the system through various workarounds. According to recent information, Anthropic is actively working to close these "loopholes" and protect the system from unauthorized users.

According to reports circulating on the Reddit platform, a certain version of the Claude Code program had a hidden feature to detect users' connections to China. Anthropic representative Thariq Shihipar commented on the situation on X (formerly Twitter), stating that this was an experiment launched in March. According to him, this measure was introduced to protect against misuse of account credentials by unauthorized sellers and "distillation" (training one AI model based on the data of another) practices.

Security Measures and Internal Alternatives

Alibaba's leadership classified the Claude Code tool as "high-risk software." The company is strongly recommending that its employees use its own in-house development, the Qoder tool, instead. This step is aimed not only at preventing corporate data leaks but also at strengthening local technological independence.

This situation is a clear example of the "technological cold war" between the US and China. While leading US companies in the AI sector are trying to protect their technologies from strategic rivals, Chinese giants like Alibaba are forced to reduce external dependence and create their own ecosystems.

For Uzbek specialists, such situations can also serve as an important lesson. Over-reliance on global services can lead to unexpected restrictions or data security issues at a certain stage. As the Alibaba example shows, large corporations are putting their security first, even if it means abandoning the most advanced Western technologies.

According to ixbt.com, Anthropic has now implemented stronger methods to protect its models and intends to completely block access attempts from China. This could lead to an even stricter division of the AI market along regional lines in the future.