US government website used Chinese model the FBI called "malicious"
The Federal Register website briefly used an open source Chinese AI search tool.
The Federal Register website briefly used an open source Chinese AI search tool.
The short version
- On Wednesday, US government officials removed a Chinese AI search tool that was briefly deployed on the Federal Register website, Reuters reported .
- 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.
What happened
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.
Why it matters
Reuters’ report noted that an archived version of the site’s source code confirmed that the Qwen model was taken down on Wednesday, so the service was available for at least a day.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.