U.S. site using that Chinese AI search tool.A U.S. government site briefly used a Chinese AI model that Washington had just accused of copying American technology.
What happened
The Federal Register website, run by the National Archives, offered an AI search tool powered by Alibaba’s Qwen model. Users could use it, among other search options, to browse proposed federal regulations and public comments. It was available at least on Wednesday, September 17, 2026. Reuters could not say exactly when it was first put up.
Why it drew attention
Days earlier, the FBI accused Alibaba of “malicious” copying of Anthropic’s models and said Chinese AI firms were copying U.S. technology on an “industrial scale.” That made a U.S. government site using Qwen look like a contradiction of official policy. The Qwen search was taken down the same day posts about it appeared on social media. Reuters reviewed screenshots and archived source code.
What kind of model it was
Qwen is an open-weight model, so key parts are publicly available. Reports said the site used a small version, around Qwen3 0.6B, not Alibaba’s flagship model. Experts said there was no immediate cybersecurity risk, because the tool was searching already public comments, not secret government data. Critics still called it a bad look for an agency to use a Chinese model while the FBI was telling people to rely on American ones.
Context
The story landed just before a planned leaders’ meeting between Washington and Beijing, and after months of U.S. claims that Chinese firms distilled Anthropic models such as Claude. Alibaba and Chinese officials have rejected those accusations.