China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990

Chinese AI model used to stop rogue OpenAI agent

July 23, 2026

A New York startup’s use of a Chinese AI model to rein in a rogue agent built with OpenAI technology is stoking fears that guardrails restricting US AI firms from doing cybersecurity work could drive customers ​toward their Beijing-based rivals, reports Reuters.

The affected startup, Hugging Face, said it had turned to Zhipu AI’s open-source GLM-5.2 model last week ‌to analyze data from the hack after leading US AI models declined the task, unable to distinguish between a defender and an attacker.

Beijing has also been increasingly using open-source to position itself as ​an alternative to the US in the high-stakes race, with Chinese state media increasingly portraying the strategy as a response to what it calls a U.S.-led attempt ‌to erect ⁠an “AI Iron Curtain.”

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