US Removes Alibaba Qwen Tool From Federal Register After 1-Day Deployment
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 18
US Removes Alibaba Qwen Tool From Federal Register After 1-Day Deployment
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 18
Summary
Wednesday’s takedown removed an Alibaba Qwen-powered search option from the Federal Register site after users flagged its presence as conflicting with US warnings about Chinese AI models.
A Sept. 15 screenshot and archived source code showed the tool had been live for at least a day on the National Archives-run website, though officials have not said when it was first added.
The contradiction was sharpened by the FBI’s earlier accusation that Alibaba was among six Chinese firms engaged in “industrial-scale distillation” of leading US AI models.
Security concerns remain unclear: Georgetown’s Anupam Chander said risk depends on how the model was trained, while Senator Mark Warner said it matters whether any US data reached Alibaba-controlled systems.