OKX Bars Hong Kong Staff from Anthropic's AI Model Amid US-China Tensions

Crypto exchange OKX has barred staff in Hong Kong from using Anthropic PBC's Claude AI model due to restrictions imposed by the US-based company. This move comes as corporate rivalries and political tensions between the US and China over AI supremacy escalate.

The restriction was put in place after OKX's corporate account with Anthropic was briefly suspended. According to internal messages viewed by Bloomberg News, employees traveling to Hong Kong or China would not be given support for accessing Claude through virtual private networks (VPNs).

OKX has been encouraging staff to use AI tools, making proficiency in those tools part of their performance evaluations. However, the company will now route AI requests from Hong Kong-based employees to other models.