Claude Code is a Conflict of Interest

Maybe this is not news to anyone, but I've repeated this statement enough times that I need this post to point at.

I share the point of view that LLMs are and will be something more akin to utility companies than a FAANG company. The models and running them represents infrastructure like an ISP or an electrical company. The LLM is an energy cost that we pay for in units called tokens.

The analogy I've been using is: Claude code is to Anthropic as cars are to gas companies.

We would never buy a sedan from Exxon, so should we be paying Anthropic to drive its own resource company?

How this is going so far

There are already cases where Anthropic have let Claude Code bugs run up usage to their financial gain:

Claude Usage Limits Discussion Megathread Ongoing (sort this by New!)

591 votes, 1.9K comments. Why a Usage Limits Discussion Megathread? This Megathread makes it easier for everyone to see what others are experiencing…

[BUG] Version 2.0.61 is extremely slow and causes rapid, excessive token consumption/rate limits · Issue #13466 · anthropics/claude-code

Preflight Checklist I have searched existing issues and this hasn&#39;t been reported yet This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs) I am using the latest version...

Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates | Hacker News

Hi, thanks for the detailed analysis. Before I keep going, I wanted to say I appreciate the depth of thinking & care that went into this.

I'd suspect this is only the beginning. Anecdotally, many of my friends and coworkers have used the past couple of weeks to upgrade their plans, setting them up for many months more of spend, whether Anthropic fixes this or not.

It's good that OSS options exist

OSS Claude Code Alternatives (by Tyler Lawson) — Semble

View Tyler Lawson's collection on Semble

Add more here 👆 if you'd like.

And that is all. This is simply to make the one point: Claude Code is a conflict of interest.

Update: As I continue to see examples of this surfacing, I've started collecting links which I'll leave here:

Claude Code is a Conflict of Interest (by Tyler Lawson) — Semble

living list on this topic: https://leaflet.pub/743a2df2-c138-411a-a782-777fa31fb306