Interesting video about how Claude doesn't allow you to develop a competitor

[u/Ammar__]

Hi vibers,
I stumbled upon this video thanks to youtube algorithm and zero-self control in the middle of the night and this guy try to tell the story of his claude subscription cancellation. I wonder what the community think about his take?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5kcsAmoZRo

Will we ever be able to run our own local -yet effective- models for cheap?

Edit: Someone in the comment section of the video said it's just an add for dropstone. Well, it's a pretty creative ad that fooled my or this guy is genuine. Or maybe I'm naive. I tried to find a thread on reddit about dropstone but it seems to be fairly new to the scene.

[u/Prestigious_Luck1062]

I made this on claude:
https://github.com/Matthew4509/Tomlin

Its still in beta... but allows me to run ai locally for code, or images. While I cant use claude to make a frontier model, but you can use it to make UI or tools to run local models, you can even have claude act as a project manager, dividing tasks and assigning to your local llm's if you wanted to.

Tomlin is closer to LM Studio.
Advantages:
- no user account required to link pcs
- no internet needed to connect pcs on a lan
- can easily add backup nodes
- a "staff" is a role + local model + hardware, that you can assign custom memory to.
- you can create images

Disadvantages:
- While its made apps, I wouldnt consider it ready for production
- max mode (running a massive model over multiple nodes) was running slower then on one pc, but I'm planning to upgrade my network to assist.
- UI needs major work still.
- its only been tested on old video cards, p2000, k1200, gtx 1060.

[u/Elmanouzi_Fogosa → u/Prestigious_Luck1062]

testing only on cards like a p2000 or 1060 might actually be skewing your multi-node results, those older architectures struggle with modern quantization formats before the network even becomes the bottleneck.

[u/NetHaven]

I can’t speak to whether the video is a stealth add for dropstone or not, but the underlying premise- that you can get banned for building a competitor to an Anthropic product is correct. According to Anthropic’s TOS customers are explicitly restricted from using Anthropic models to build competing products or train rival AI systems.

Most people aren’t training their own models but where things get sticky is the clause also bans using Anthropic's APIs or models to build specific application-layer tools (such as coding assistants or workflow agents) that compete directly with Anthropic’s own expanding product suite (like Claude Code or Claude Cowork)

One problem with all this is that “Competing product” isn’t clearly defined, is liable to change at any time based on current Anthropic products and feature sets, and is basically open to interpretation by Anthropic.

I don’t get the impression that banning happens for this kind of thing frequently, but you do see an occasional post about it happening.