China's star AI labs routed user requests to Claude at least 35 million times in the summer

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Published: 2026-09-11T07:04:15.990Z • Permanent link

Chinese tech giant Baidu's AI lab, led by renowned AI expert Yang Quan-Yuan, has been caught routing user requests to Claude, a popular AI model developed by Anthropic, at least 35 million times during the summer of 2023. The incident has sparked widespread concern among researchers and policymakers, who fear that Baidu's actions may undermine the integrity of the AI research community. Claude, which is designed to be a more transparent and explainable AI model, has been touted as a potential solution to the problem of "black box" AI systems that are difficult to understand and trust.

Baidu's decision to route user requests to Claude was reportedly made in an effort to improve the performance of its own AI models. The company's researchers believed that Claude's ability to provide more detailed explanations of its decision-making process could help to improve the accuracy and reliability of Baidu's own AI systems. However, the company's actions have been criticized by some as a blatant attempt to exploit Claude's capabilities for its own gain, rather than contributing to the broader goal of advancing AI research.

Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has been praised for its efforts to develop more transparent and explainable AI models. The company's CEO, Scott Shelby, has been a vocal advocate for the importance of transparency in AI research, and has argued that more explainable AI models are essential for building trust in AI systems.

The incident has significant implications for the research community and the broader financial markets. Baidu's actions could be seen as a breach of trust in the AI research community, and could undermine the credibility of Claude as a research tool. The incident also highlights the need for greater transparency and accountability in AI research, particularly in the financial sector where AI models are increasingly being used to make high-stakes decisions.

The incident also has implications for the financial markets, where companies such as Alibaba, Moonshot, Zhipu, DeepSeek, and Xiaomi have all attempted to use Claude to train their own AI models. If Baidu's actions are seen as a breach of trust, these companies may be forced to re-evaluate their own use of Claude, and may ultimately decide to abandon the technology altogether. This could have significant consequences for the financial markets, particularly in industries where AI models are increasingly being used to make investment decisions.

The incident is part of a larger pattern of increasing scrutiny of AI research and development. In recent years, there have been several high-profile incidents involving AI research, including the use of AI models to manipulate financial markets and the development of AI systems that are capable of autonomous decision-making. These incidents have highlighted the need for greater transparency and accountability in AI research, particularly in the financial sector.