Some topics are off limits inside popular Chinese-made free AI, researchers find

October 2, 2026 / 1:08 PM EDT / CBS News

An AI model downloaded over 3 billion times and used by U.S. firms like Airbnb and Uber is embedded with China-friendly narratives and programmed for censorship, new research shows.

Qwen, a freely available model made by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba, doesn't acknowledge the violent suppression of protests in Hong Kong in 2019 or Tiananmen Square in 1989; it calls the Chinese government-maligned religion Falun Gong a "dangerous cult," and curiously won't talk about Winnie the Pooh, it's thought because dissidents have compared the fictional bear to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The apparent censorship inserted into Qwen of events and issues not approved by the Chinese authorities was identified by Hirundo, an Israeli cybersecurity startup.

The firm says its scientists have found a way to remove the model's bias using sophisticated technology that amounts to "AI brain surgery," and are now set to publish what they call a "Westernized" version of Qwen.

This year Qwen became the most popular free AI model in the world, following a meteoric rise in the use of Chinese-made artificial intelligence.

But researchers warn that its international popularity also risks spreading and entrenching its bias toward the…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/