Alibaba officially banned employees from using Anthropic’s Claude AI coding assistant on July 10, 2026. Internal assessments flagged the American software as a high-risk tool containing potential hidden tracking mechanisms and backdoors. Staff must uninstall all Anthropic products and transition to Qoder, Alibaba’s internally developed platform.
On the same day, Alibaba discontinued humanlike AI companion features on its Qwen platform. This shutdown preempts new Chinese government regulations on AI services simulating human interaction, which take effect on July 15. These decisions reflect a strategic pivot toward domestic technology and compliance with China’s evolving artificial intelligence landscape.