Anthropic Revokes OpenAI's Access to Claude AI Models Amid Competitive Tensions

Anthropic cuts off OpenAI's access to its Claude models | TechCrunch

Anthropic has revoked OpenAI's access to its Claude family of AI models, according to a report in Wired. Sources told Wired that OpenAI was connecting Claude to internal tools that allowed the company to compare Claude's performance to its own models in categories like coding, writing, and safety. TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic and OpenAI for comment. In a statement to Wired, an Anthropic spokesperson said, "OpenAI's own technical staff were also using our coding tools ahead of the launch of GPT-5," which is apparently "a direct violation of our terms of service." (Anthropic's commercial terms forbid companies from using Claude to build competing services.) Meanwhile, an OpenAI spokesperson said, "While we respect Anthropic's decision to cut off our API access, it's disappointing considering our API remains available to them." Anthropic executives had already shown resistance to providing access to competitors, with Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan previously justifying the company's decision to cut off Windsurf (a rumored OpenAI acquisition target, subsequently acquired by Cognition) by saying, "I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI."

Anthropic Revokes OpenAI's Access to Claude

All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. Anthropic revoked OpenAI's API access to its models on Tuesday, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell WIRED. OpenAI was informed that its access was cut off due to violating the terms of service. "Claude Code has become the go-to choice for coders everywhere and so it was no surprise to learn OpenAI's own technical staff were also using our coding tools ahead of the launch of GPT-5," Anthropic spokesperson Christopher Nulty said in a statement to WIRED. "Unfortunately, this is a direct violation of our terms of service." According to Anthropic's commercial terms of service, customers are barred from using the service to "build a competing product or service, including to train competing AI models" or "reverse engineer or duplicate" the services. This change in OpenAI's access to Claude comes as the ChatGPT-maker is reportedly preparing to release a new AI model, GPT-5, which is rumored to be better at coding. OpenAI was plugging Claude into its own internal tools using special developer access (APIs), instead of using the regular chat interface, according to sources. This allowed the company to run tests to evaluate Claude's capabilities in things like coding and creative writing against its own AI models, and check how Claude responded to safety-related prompts involving categories like CSAM, self-harm, and defamation, the sources say. The results help OpenAI compare its own models' behavior under similar conditions and make adjustments as needed. "It's industry standard to evaluate other AI systems to benchmark progress and improve safety. While we respect Anthropic's decision to cut off our API access, it's disappointing considering our API remains available to them," OpenAI's chief communications officer Hannah Wong said in a statement to WIRED. Nulty says that Anthropic will "continue to ensure OpenAI has API access for the purposes of benchmarking and safety evaluations as is standard practice across the industry." The company did not respond to WIRED's request for clarification on if and how OpenAI's current Claude API restriction would impact this work. Top tech companies yanking API access from competitors has been a tactic in the tech industry for years. Facebook did the same to Twitter-owned Vine (which led to allegations of anticompetitive behavior) and last month Salesforce restricted competitors from accessing certain data through the Slack API. This isn't even a first for Anthropic. Last month, the company restricted the AI coding startup Windsurf's direct access to its models after it was rumored OpenAI was set to acquire it. (That deal fell through). Anthropic's chief science officer Jared Kaplan spoke to TechCrunch at the time about revoking Windsurf's access to Claude, saying "I think it would be odd for us to be selling Claude to OpenAI."

Anthropic says OpenAI engineers using Claude Code ahead of GPT-5 launch

Anthropic says it has revoked OpenAI's access to the Claude API after ChatGPT's engineers were found using Claude's coding tools. Claude Code is better than any other coding tool in the AI coding industry, also known as "Vibe coding." With Claude, you can create web apps from scratch, and it's also pretty efficient with infra-related work. Not just vibe coders who don't know how to code use Claude, but also professional engineers. In fact, Claude Code is also used in Claude's development at Anthropic. Anthropic offers API access to Claude, which means OpenAI could also access it. But on Friday, Anthropic confirmed that it revoked OpenAI's access to Claude Code after the company was found using its coding tools ahead of the GPT-5 launch. "Claude Code has become the go-to choice for coders everywhere, and so it was no surprise to learn OpenAI's own technical staff were also using our coding tools ahead of the launch of GPT-5," Anthropic spokesperson Christopher Nulty noted in a statement to Wired. It's unclear how OpenAI engineers were using Claude Code, but it's possible it was used to improve GPT-5's coding capabilities. GPT-5 is expected to launch next week with "auto" and reasoning modes.

Anthropic Revokes OpenAI's Access To Its Family Of Claude LLMs Because The Latter Was Using Its Rival's Tools To Gauge The Performance Of Its Own Products, Giving The ChatGPT Creator Somewhat Of An Edge

OpenAI was provided access to Anthropic's AI models through its API, which might not seem anything out of the ordinary because this move can be treated similar to publications allowing ChatGPT to access exclusive content, but the artificial intelligence startup reportedly violated Anthropic's Terms of Service by benchmarking its competitor's Claude Large Language Models to gauge the performance of its own LLM. As expected, Anthropic cut off access as the data could be used to develop a more capable service, giving OpenAI a massive advantage in this race. Coming to the terms of using Anthropic's Claude, Wired reports that the commercial conditions of using the program forbid competitors from enhancing products or training rival models. In short, OpenAI was leveraging Claude to develop a competing AI model, which eventually meant that the company's access would be revoked. As for the tools that were used, the report states that OpenAI's technical team was taking advantage of Claude Code, Claude's coding toolkit, via developer APIs to support development of GPT-5. However, Anthropic was not cut off access completely, as its states that OpenAI will still be able to perform 'benchmarking and safety evaluations.' An OpenAI spokesperson has said that while the firm respects Anthropic's decision to cut off its API access, it is 'disappointing' because the company's API is still available with its competitor. As reported by TechCrunch, Anthropic executives are less than thrilled about sharing technology with OpenAI. The company behind ChatGPT recently acquired Windsurf, a coding startup, forcing Anthropic to sever access for the firm. This move is similar to what Facebook did with Vine and Salesforce in limiting data access. Assuming Anthropic would have allowed OpenAI access to its tools, the latter would eventually be able to develop LLMs that provide better coding and writing services, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Claude Cutoff: Anthropic Revokes OpenAI's API Access Ahead of GPT-5 Launch

The sudden access cut highlights the tension in the growing competitive AI market, and raises questions on openness and collaborations among the dominating players of this industry. The increasing competition in the AI LLM market is generating tension between companies. However, this cut-off decision came at a time when Sam Altman's company had been preparing to : GPT 5. In the statement, Anthropic spokesperson "Claude Code has become the go-to choice for coders everywhere, and so it was no surprise to learn OpenAI's own technical staff were also using our coding tools ahead of the launch of GPT-5." Continuing his statement, Christopher Nulty concludes, "Unfortunately, this is a direct violation of our terms of service." Claude's spokesperson straightforwardly mentioned that customers are not allowed to use the service to make a rival product, or train other competitive LLM models. As per the reports, OpenAI used to use Claude APIs, instead of the regular chat interface. Therefore, they had the opportunities to evaluate in sectors like coding and creative writing, compared to their own GPT models. Notably, OpenAI replied to all the allegations positively, mentioning what they have done is necessary to improve AI safety and doesn't go against industry standards. The spokesperson opined, "It's industry standard to evaluate other AI systems to benchmark progress and improve safety. While we respect Anthropic's decision to cut off our API access, it's disappointing considering our API remains available to them."