&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Anthropic accuses Alibaba of massive AI model extraction campaign using 25,000 fake accounts")
US AI-giant Anthropic has accused Chinese tech-giant Alibaba of attempting to extract its Claude AI model's capabilities. In a letter to the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Anthropic accused operators linked to Alibaba of carrying out almost 29 million exchanges with Claude using roughly 25,000 fraudulent accounts in an orchestrated campaign, between April 22 and June 5. The letter claims that it was the largest known distillation attack to date.
“We believe combating the threat of illicit distillation requires coordinated action between government and industry, and we will continue working with Congress and the Administration to maintain American AI leadership,” said Anthropic in a statement. The letter also cited other alleged attacks, which Anthropic said posed a threat to the US military. This letter comes two months after the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a memorandum pledging to help AI companies detect and coordinate against industrial-scale distillation.
"Distillation attacks turn hundreds of billions of dollars in American investment and [research and development] into a massive subsidy for our geopolitical competitors," said Anthropic. Anthropic's letter marked the latest escalation in the same kinds of distillation efforts that are used to train AI models to create similar capabilities at far lower costs.
Anthropic cites a US Department of Defence claim that car maker BYD, tech company Baidu, Alibaba, robot maker Unitree, and a total of 188 entities are directly controlled by the Chinese military and form the military industrial base. The label was opposed by both the Chinese Government and companies. Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sued the US Department of Defence, saying that the designation announced on June 8 has "no basis in fact or law". It demanded to be removed from the designation as it prohibits them from landing defence contracts and carries reputational damage. On Monday, China announced sanctions on 10 American military-related companies, raising the risk of escalation of the trade war at a time when both Washington and Beijing are seeking to stabilise their relation.
