US government website used Chinese model the FBI called "malicious"

US government officials removed a Chinese AI search tool from the Federal Register website on Wednesday, after social media users noted the National Archives was using an Alibaba Qwen AI model while the FBI had named Alibaba among six Chinese firms accused of "industrial-scale distillation" of US frontier models. Reuters reported that an archived version of the site's source code confirmed the Qwen model was taken down on Wednesday, meaning the service was available for at least a day after a user with the handle "tleilax___" posted a widely shared screenshot of the option on September 15. Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, told Reuters the disconnect was "insane," while Georgetown University Law Professor Anupam Chander said any security risk depends on how the model was trained and Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.) said it matters whether US data was processed by "Alibaba-controlled systems.

On Wednesday, US government officials removed a Chinese AI search tool that was briefly deployed on the Federal Register website, Reuters reported https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-government-website-used-ai-search-tool-china-that-fbi-said-copied-anthropic-2026-09-17/ . The change came after social media users noticed an apparent contradiction: The National Archives was using one of Alibaba’s Qwen AI models, even as top US law enforcement claimed that such models illegally copy US frontier models. Earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI named Alibaba among six leading Chinese firms allegedly conducting “industrial-scale distillation” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/six-chinese-ai-firms-accused-of-aggressively-copying-us-frontier-models/ that the agency says is helping America’s biggest competitor cut costs and development time in the race for global AI leadership. It’s unclear when exactly the National Archives, which runs the Federal Register website, began offering visitors the option to use a Qwen model to search public comments on proposed regulations. So far, the independent agency tasked with increasing public access to federal government documents has not commented on the removal and did not respond to Ars’ request for comment. The White House and the FBI have also not commented. On X, a user with the handle “tleilax ” posted a widely shared screenshot showing the option displayed on the government website on September 15. Reuters’ report noted that an archived version of the site’s source code confirmed that the Qwen model was taken down on Wednesday, so the service was available for at least a day. Daniel Castro, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, told Reuters that it is an “insane” disconnect for a US agency to use an Alibaba model while the FBI encourages stakeholders to use only American models. Use probably posed no security risks Whether the government use of the Qwen model posed a security risk depends on how it was trained, Georgetown University Law Professor Anupam Chander told Reuters. It also matters if any US data was processed by “Alibaba-controlled systems,” Senator Marker Warner D-Va. said.