China's internet regulator investigates DeepSeek and Moonshot over Anthropic's claims they fed user data to Claude

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) is investigating DeepSeek and Moonshot AI over user data that may have reached Anthropic, according to a report in The Information by Jing Yang and Qianer Liu. Gizmodo and TNW both relayed the report. The investigation follows Anthropic's 154-page threat intelligence report, "Detecting and countering misuse of AI," published earlier this month. In it, Anthropic accused seven China-based labs of illicit distillation: relaying customer requests through Claude to harvest its output. The seven are Alibaba, Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Zhipu, MiniMax, Xiaomi and SenseTime. Anthropic said Moonshot sent more than 23 million user inputs between May and July, and DeepSeek sent 12.1 million during a 14-day period in July. According to TNW, the CAC summoned all seven companies but quickly narrowed its focus to DeepSeek and Moonshot because of the examples in the report. Regulators have questioned staff at both firms. The probe remains open and no penalty has been decided. Neither company has commented publicly, and TNW says it has not independently verified the report. The CAC licenses AI services for the Chinese market and polices data leaving the country. It can order products withdrawn without going to court. That gives the investigation direct consequences for two of China's best-known open-model developers and their users.