CAC investigates DeepSeek and Moonshot AI over alleged data leaks to Claude

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has launched an investigation into AI firms DeepSeek and Moonshot AI (月之暗面) following allegations by Anthropic that they secretly routed sensitive user data to its servers. Regulators have visited both companies to interview executives and staff, focusing on whether sensitive data from police, military, and state-owned enterprises was transferred to U.S. servers. The investigation follows an Anthropic threat intelligence report released on September 10, which accused seven Chinese labs—including Alibaba, Moonshot AI, DeepSeek, Zhipu AI (智谱), MiniMax, SenseTime (商汤), and Xiaomi (小米)—of "illegal distillation" using fraudulent accounts. Anthropic claims Moonshot AI routed over 23 million interactions to Claude via 5,380 fraudulent accounts, while DeepSeek generated over 12.1 million interactions within a 14-day window in July.