The Federal Register website, run by the US National Archives, has removed a search tool that used Qwen, an artificial-intelligence model developed by China’s Alibaba. Reuters reported that the option disappeared around the time social-media posts drew attention to the model’s use.

The feature let users search public comments tied to federal regulations. Observers identified search modes labelled Qwen3:0.6B on the advanced search page, including a hybrid variant. Public statements do not make clear when the tool was installed.

Qwen is an open-weight model that can be installed on a user’s own infrastructure. Its use alone does not prove that data was sent to Alibaba’s servers. The material being searched was, by the available descriptions, public.

Reuters noted that the FBI had previously accused Alibaba of “malicious” copying of technology from the US firm Anthropic. That accusation concerns the model’s origins, not a finding that the federal site suffered a breach. The National Archives and the White House did not immediately provide explanations to the news agency.

Without a technical account, there is no basis to claim that sensitive information left the government’s perimeter. The episode does, however, raise questions about vendor review and the rules for AI models used in public administration.

Removing a search tool is not the same as cancelling public comments or the publication of rules. The Federal Register remains the official journal of federal regulations; only a query option changed.

Image: National Archives Building, Washington, 19 May 2010 / David Samuel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Archives I, not the Federal Register search page. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: US government website used AI search tool from China that FBI said copied Anthropic | Reuters; Federal Register (site oficial).