US Federal Register Caught Using Chinese AI Model for Document Search
"Even the United States government is unable to afford the cost per token charged by American AI companies." The post US Federal Register Caught Using Chinese AI Model for Document Search appeared first on Futurism .
The US Federal Register, the official journal of the US federal government, has been caught using a Chinese AI model for document search. This development comes despite the country's top tech billionaires expressing fears about the capabilities of Chinese AI. The Federal Register offers a "search mode" option on its interface, which defaults to "semantic" but also allows users to choose between two options - "Qwen3:0.6B" and "Qwen3:0.6B".
These options are from Alibaba Cloud's Qwen models, which are much cheaper to run compared to models developed by US-based labs. One user noted that "even the United States government is unable to afford the cost per token charged by American AI companies". The two Qwen options were removed from the interface a day after being discovered.
The inclusion of these models does not suggest any malicious intent, but rather shows a preference for low-cost, capable AI.
Written by urgent.news from Futurism's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
