US government website used Chinese model the FBI called "malicious"
The Federal Register website temporarily deployed an open-source AI search tool developed in China, the same type of model the FBI has publicly labeled malicious. The tool has since been removed, but its brief appearance on a U.S. government site drew immediate scrutiny.
Why this matters: The Federal Register is where the U.S. government publishes its official rules, regulations, and legal notices. It is not a test environment. Dropping a Chinese AI tool onto that site, even briefly, is a serious lapse. The FBI did not call this technology risky in passing. It used the word malicious. The real issue here is process: how does software with that kind of federal flag end up on a government website at all, and who approved it? That is an accountability question, not just a technical one.
Who should care: General readers · AI governance · Policy
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