From Futurism · Joe Wilkins · · 1m 30s
US government quietly used Chinese AI for document search
The Federal Register was caught running Alibaba's Qwen model, exposing the cost gap between American and Chinese AI.
In brief
The Federal Register was caught running Alibaba's Qwen model, exposing the cost gap between American and Chinese AI. Cost pressures are pushing even US government agencies toward cheaper Chinese AI models, despite political rhetoric about AI competition with China. Originally reported by Futurism.
Chinese AI models are way cheaper
Alibaba Cloud's open source Qwen models cost far less to run than US alternatives like Claude and ChatGPT, making them attractive to cost-conscious organizations.
Federal Register was using Qwen
The official US government journal's search interface offered two Qwen options, including a lightweight half-billion-parameter model, as alternatives to its default semantic search.
“Even the United States government is unable to afford the cost per token charged by American AI companies”
Someone spotted it and shared
A Switzerland-based portfolio manager posted a screenshot of the Qwen options on the Federal Register site, sparking online discussion about US government AI costs.
The options disappeared quickly
Within a day of the post going viral, both Qwen search options were removed from the Federal Register interface, though a snapshot from September 16 preserved evidence of their existence.
It reveals a real cost problem
The incident shows that even US government agencies find Chinese AI models more affordable than domestic options, contradicting political messaging about AI competition with China.
No security breach, just economics
The Federal Register's use of Qwen wasn't malicious or a data theft risk, since the registry's contents are public. Someone simply chose a capable, low-cost model over expensive US alternatives.
The big picture
Cost pressures are pushing even US government agencies toward cheaper Chinese AI models, despite political rhetoric about AI competition with China.
