“China Stole Our Data to Train Its Models,” Anthropic Claims — Musk Fires Back

A heated debate has erupted in the AI world as Anthropic accused Chinese tech firms DeepSeek, Moonshot, and MiniMax of stealing data from its AI model Claude to enhance their own systems. In response, Elon Musk turned the tables, criticizing Anthropic and questioning its credibility.

Allegations by Anthropic

Anthropic, in a blog post, claimed that the Chinese companies used thousands of fake bot accounts to interact with Claude and extract its responses. According to the company, around 24,000 fake accounts were created, and over 16 million queries were made to the AI.

Anthropic described this technique as distillation, a process where a powerful AI model is used to train smaller or less capable AI systems. The company framed it as an industrial attack, warning that foreign firms could exploit stolen AI data for military or espionage purposes, compromising U.S. AI security.

Elon Musk Hits Back

Reports indicate that Musk dismissed Anthropic’s claims as hypocrisy. Posting on X, he argued that Anthropic itself had used stolen data to train Claude and had previously paid $1.5 billion in settlements for similar practices. Musk stated that a company that steals data from others cannot claim the moral high ground to accuse someone else.

He referenced X community notes, highlighting that Anthropic leveraged data without permission to build its AI, making its accusations against Chinese firms inconsistent.

Internet Debate Heats Up

Experts and industry insiders have criticized Anthropic’s stance. Many argue that Anthropic itself trained its models using publicly available internet data, and when others learn from its AI, it shouldn’t be deemed an “attack.”

Tory Green, co-founder of IO.Net, called Anthropic’s complaints hypocritical, questioning why a company that advocates open research is protesting when others access its AI outputs.

The Bigger Picture

This controversy underscores the tensions in the global AI industry, where data, intellectual property, and AI capabilities have become increasingly contentious. With multiple players—Chinese tech giants and U.S. startups—competing for dominance, debates over data usage, ethics, and corporate accountability are only expected to intensify.