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Science & Tech25 outlets ran this2 min read

US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival

Federal Register search function powered by Alibaba's Qwen model was removed after allegations of 'malicious' copying.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival

What this story says

  • The Federal Register website used Alibaba's Qwen AI model to power a search tool for proposed regulations.
  • The FBI accused Alibaba of "malicious" copying of technology from US company Anthropic.
  • The Qwen-powered search tool was taken down on 16 September 2026.
  • The Chinese embassy described the copying allegations as "unfounded."

Who covered it

Left 7%(1)Centre 66%(10)Right 27%(4)

Percentages are shares of the 15 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 10 of the 25 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

66/100

Craft

95/100

Hype

12/100

25 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 1 of the 15 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

The Federal Register website, which is run by the National Archives, used Alibaba's Qwen AI model to allow users to search proposed federal regulations. The tool was available alongside other search options. The FBI accused Alibaba of "malicious" copying of technology from US rival Anthropic to build its own artificial intelligence tools. This accusation was made public last week, according to reports.

The Qwen-powered search tool was removed from the Federal Register website on 16 September 2026, around the same time social media posts about its use appeared. Screenshots and archived source code reviewed by Reuters confirmed the takedown. The FBI declined to comment on the allegations. The Chinese embassy in Washington stated that the copying allegations were "unfounded."

Disagreement on when the tool was deployed

The Business Times reported that the search tool using Alibaba's Qwen model was available on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, but it was unclear when it was deployed. Other reports state the Qwen-powered search was taken down on Wednesday, 16 September 2026.

What the coverage left out

None of the centre-rated or right-rated reports mention the FBI's broader claim that Chinese AI companies are engaged in "malicious" copying of US technology on an "industrial scale."

Tags:#AI#CyberSecurity#USChinaRelations#Alibaba#FederalRegister

Coverage settled. We checked this 29 times and stopped on 23 Sept 2026, 11:01. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

1 rated outlet

We have not written our reading of the left coverage of this story. The left-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.

Centre

10 rated outlets

  • Centre-rated reports led with the FBI's accusation that Alibaba engaged in "malicious" copying of Anthropic's technology. These reports stated that the Federal Register website used Alibaba's Qwen AI model for a search tool. They noted the tool's subsequent removal on 16 September 2026. The Chinese embassy's denial of the allegations was also included.

Right

4 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports highlighted the FBI's accusation that Alibaba engaged in "malicious" copying of US technology, specifically Anthropic's models, to develop its own AI tools. These reports identified the Federal Register website as the entity that used Alibaba's Qwen AI model for a search function. The removal of the tool on 16 September 2026 was also mentioned, as was the Chinese embassy's statement calling the allegations "unfounded."

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival?
Of the 15 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 7% are rated left, 66% are rated centre, 27% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 25. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 15 rated outlets on this story, 7% are rated left, 66% are rated centre, 27% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival biased?
US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival is one event reported by 25 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered US government website used Chinese AI tool FBI said copied rival?
25 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What was the Federal Register website using Alibaba's AI for?
The Federal Register website used Alibaba's Qwen AI model to power a search tool. This tool allowed users to search for proposed federal regulations and public comments.
Why was the AI search tool removed?
The tool was removed on 16 September 2026, following accusations by the FBI that Alibaba had engaged in "malicious" copying of technology from US company Anthropic to build its own AI models.
What was China's response to the allegations?
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington stated that the allegations of copying made by the FBI were "unfounded."

Read it at the source

25 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

1

Centre

10
Show 2 more

Right

4

Not rated

10
Show 2 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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