Federal Register removed a Chinese AI search tool after questions

In short: US officials removed a Chinese-made AI search option from the Federal Register website after it was spotted by social media users.

What happened

On Wednesday, US government officials removed an AI search tool from the Federal Register website, according to a Reuters report cited by Ars Technica. The tool was based on Qwen, an AI model from Alibaba, a Chinese company.

The Federal Register is the website where people can read and comment on proposed US government rules. Visitors briefly had the option to use the Qwen tool to search through public comments. A widely shared screenshot showed the option on September 15, and Reuters said an archived copy of the site’s code confirmed it was taken down on Wednesday.

The removal drew attention because the FBI recently accused Alibaba and other Chinese firms of “industrial-scale distillation,” which is a way of copying how another AI system behaves (like making a knockoff by watching how the original answers). The National Archives, which runs the Federal Register site, did not comment on why it was added or removed. The White House and the FBI also did not comment.

Why it matters

This episode highlights a practical problem for government agencies. Some AI tools are cheap and easy to run locally, but using tools linked to China can raise political and security concerns. Experts told Reuters the risk here was likely limited because the Federal Register content is already public, and the specific model reported to be used was a small “open-weight” model (meaning it can be downloaded and run on your own computers instead of sending questions to the company’s servers). Still, some lawmakers say the federal government should avoid Chinese AI models entirely to reduce long-term dependence.

Source: Arstechnica