The US National Archives briefly deployed an Alibaba Qwen AI model on the Federal Register website, drawing criticism given that the FBI had recently labelled such Chinese AI models as "malicious" and accused Alibaba of illegally copying US frontier models. The tool was quietly removed after social media users flagged the contradiction, though security experts noted it likely posed minimal risk, as it only handled already-public data and did not share information with Alibaba. The incident has reignited broader debate about whether US agencies and businesses should be permitted to use open-source Chinese AI models, with some lawmakers insisting they should be banned outright while business groups warn that restrictions could put the US at a competitive disadvantage.
