ByteDance bans distillation of US AI models; Anthropic confirms custom chip for Claude
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ByteDance bans employees from distilling US AI models amid fears of Washington retaliation that could jeopardize TikTok. Anthropic confirms it is building a custom chip for Claude with Samsung and Broadcom.
ByteDance Distillation Ban
ByteDance has banned employees from distilling US AI models, fearing Washington retaliation that could endanger TikTok, according to The Information. Founder Zhang Yiming reportedly told staff to prioritize long-term goals over short-term gains. The move follows Alibaba revoking access to Anthropic’s Claude to quell distillation concerns around its Qwen model. The crackdown comes after Anthropic and Trump administration officials accused Moonshot’s Kimi K3 of distilling from Anthropic’s Fable, alleging Moonshot accessed NVIDIA GB300 GPUs via Thailand.
Anthropic Custom Chip
Anthropic confirmed to Business Insider it is assembling an in-house silicon design team and taking a 'multi-chip approach' for Claude. The custom ASIC is being developed with Samsung and Broadcom, following earlier speculation. The confirmation arrives as OpenAI unveiled its own ASIC, Jalapeño, designed with Broadcom and slated for mass deployment by end of 2026. Anthropic’s chip efforts aim to improve inference costs and economies of scale for its AI models.
What's Next
Anthropic is expected to integrate its custom chip into Claude’s infrastructure within the next year, while ByteDance faces a January 2025 deadline to divest TikTok in the US. It remains unclear whether Beijing will formally adopt anti-distillation rules or if Washington will impose further chip export controls.
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ByteDance bans distillation of US AI models; Anthropic confirms custom chip for Claude
