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Anthropic Raises Alarm Over Distillation Attacks from China-Based AI Labs

Anthropic reveals a surge in distillation attacks on its AI models, targeting valuable capabilities and potentially aiding rival technologies.

AI2Day NewsdeskAI-assistedPublished Updated Editor: Lee Brown2 min read
A cybersecurity operations center monitoring AI model security threats, analysts tracking distillation attacks on display screens, maps showing attack origins f
Illustration made with AI. Not a photograph of the events described.
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Key points

  • Anthropic reported nearly 200 million distillation attacks by China-based AI firms as of October 2023.
  • Alibaba led the attacks with 151 million exchanges between May and July 2026.
  • Moonshot AI's campaign allegedly involved requests from the Chinese military.

What happened?

Anthropic, an American AI company, has reported extensive distillation attacks from China-based AI companies. These attacks, which have intensified over several months, involve methods to bypass Anthropic's defenses and extract critical capabilities from their models. A distillation attack is a technique where attackers trick a model into revealing its

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