Hugging Face turns to Chinese AI after US models refused

Hugging Face was forced to use Chinese open-weights model Z.ai GLM 5.2 to analyze a cyberattack after commercial frontier models like Anthropic's blocked requests. Safety guardrails on closed-source models could not distinguish between malicious and defensive security analysis, rendering them useless for the task. The incident has intensified debate over Chinese versus American AI models, with White House advisor David Sacks warning that restricting open-source models only weakens US competitiveness. Reports suggest the Trump administration may pressure companies to stop using Chinese open-weight models, while the Commerce Department has considered adding Chinese AI labs to its Entity List.