Anthropic reports Chinese AI firms redirecting user queries to Claude
Anthropic accused Chinese AI firms Moonshot and DeepSeek of systematically redirecting user queries to Claude while users believed they were using the Chinese firms' models, with some queries containing sensitive data from Chinese military and Russian government sources.
What happened
Anthropic reported that the Chinese AI firms Moonshot and DeepSeek have redirected user queries to Anthropic's Claude model instead of processing them with their own software. Users believed their requests were being handled by Moonshot's Kimi or by DeepSeek, but were unknowingly routed to Claude.
Kimi redirected nearly 300,000 customer queries to Claude over a ten-day period using a network of 5,380 fake accounts. DeepSeek similarly redirected queries, including requests containing surveillance camera footage from areas near Chinese military installations and data from a Russian government ministry database with valid login credentials.
Reported impact
Sensitive data from Chinese and Russian government sources was processed through Anthropic's systems without authorization. These included surveillance footage from areas near Chinese military locations and government database credentials from Russia's defense ministry.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.