AI Weekly Roundup: Doubao & Qianwen Discontinue Agent Features; Tencent's Token Quota Starts at 1400 Yuan/Month; Alibaba Bans Claude Code

Key AI industry developments this week span policy adherence, internal resource adjustments, leadership transitions, and product overhauls at leading tech companies.

Alibaba has banned internal use of Claude Code starting July 10 due to reported security risks involving backdoors. The company classified Claude Code as a high-risk tool and recommended its in-house Qoder as an alternative. Additionally, Alibaba is integrating its Agent product lines (QoderWork, Wukong, MuleRun) into a more robust enterprise productivity AI product led by Chen Yusen, ensuring existing user benefits remain unaffected.

Meituan is restricting employee use of ByteDance’s Doubao, following earlier limits on Alibaba’s Qianwen. Teams must migrate to Meituan’s newly launched trillion-parameter model LongCat-2.0 (set to be open-sourced) or DeepSeek; exceptions require special approval from senior executives.

ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba’s Qianwen will shut down their AI agent features on July 15, aligning with the implementation of China’s Interim Measures for the Management of Artificial Intelligence Anthropomorphic Interactive Services. Released by five national authorities on April 10, 2026, the regulation addresses risks like harmful content for minors, emotional dependency, and unregulated user-generated (UGC) agents (e.g., virtual lovers). Both platforms had offered agent-building tools—Doubao’s zero-code persona creation and Qianwen’s agent store—but faced growing moderation challenges over non-compliant UGC content.

Tencent updated its internal token mechanism in July: T-level employees get an initial 1400 yuan/month, non-T-level staff 700 yuan/month, with additional dynamic allocations from a buffer pool based on prior usage. Actual quotas often exceed basic levels, with some employees receiving over 10,000 yuan/month. Separately, QClaw product manager Zhang Shuyu left Tencent, clarifying there was no “horse race” between QClaw and Workbuddy.

ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo issued an all-staff letter revising the company’s 10 leadership principles. The new rules emphasize managers should focus on long-term high-value work, stay close to frontline business, and reduce formalities like redundant approvals and meetings. These principles will now be part of managers’ performance evaluations.

Post-1995 AI expert Sun Tianxiang joined Baidu as head of its Basic Model R&D Department (BMU). Meanwhile, Jia Yangqing—ex-Alibaba VP who joined Nvidia just a year ago—has left the company.

Other notable updates: Tesla capped employees’ weekly AI spending at $200; Apple took DMCA action to remove leaked iPhone 18 Pro materials; Huawei’s He Tingbo released the V2 version of the “Tao’s Law” paper with additional engineering details and test data.

Sources

• InfoQ: Original Report