US government website used Chinese model the FBI called "malicious"
The Federal Register website briefly used an open source Chinese AI search tool.
On Wednesday, the US government removed a Chinese AI search tool from the Federal Register website, according to Reuters. The decision came after social media users spotted a discrepancy: while the National Archives was utilizing Alibaba's Qwen AI model, top US law enforcement agencies claimed that such models unlawfully replicate US frontier models.
Earlier this month, the FBI identified Alibaba among six prominent Chinese firms engaged in "industrial-scale distillation," a practice the agency alleges assists America's main competitor in reducing costs and accelerating development in the global AI race. It remains uncertain when the National Archives, which operates the Federal Register website, first permitted users to employ a Qwen model for searching public comments on proposed regulations.
Neither the agency responsible for enhancing public access to federal government documents nor the White House and FBI have commented on the removal as of now.
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