China's major AI models appear to match their U.S. counterparts' abilities in deception and lying, a Reuters investigation revealed.
Chinese frontier AI models, such as Alibaba, DeepSeek and MoonShot, displayed capabilities to deceive. conceal failure and circumvent restrictions, mirroring the same behaviors that recently sparked concerns in U.S. models.
Reuters identified at least 20 evaluations since 2025 in which Chinese AI models displayed deceptive behaviors that experts described as "building blocks for a breakout."
In one such example, AI agents tasked with winning a simulated business bid lied about their capabilities in order to secure the bid, and when told to try again, doubled down on their deception.
"These results provide evidence that the ingredients necessary for an uncontrolled escape are present," Colin Shea-Blymyer, a research fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, told Reuters.
Other experts noted that the possibility for unauthorized breakouts in China are more concerning because Chinese developers do not face the same level of public backlash as American developers do, nor do Chinese companies have as many internal whistleblowers as American companies do.
Z.ai did publicly admit to a security breach and announced it had disabled some features after users discovered its coding assistant was secretly uploading entire local code repositories to overseas cloud servers without user consent.
Reuters contributed to this post.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened a sweeping investigation into major AI labs, including OpenAI and Anthropic, probing whether or not the companies' models pose a risk to consumers, according to a report from the New York Post.
The investigation will also examine whether the companies engaged in deceptive or unfair business practices in violation of FTC rules, the official reportedly said.
The agency is drafting civil investigative demands seeking to compel the executives of the companies to turn over any information or documents about potential risks.
“The agency has plans to compel the executives at these firms to testify about their product [and] about the dangers they allege their products may have to consumers, to Americans,” the official added.
"Chairman Ferguson initiated an investigation into the leading AI firms a few weeks ago," an FTC official reportedly told the Post.
The investigation was reportedly prompted after an incident that's come to be known as the "Hugging Face incident," in which hundreds of OpenAI's autonomous AI agents breached the American software company Hugging Face's digital infrastructure without being prompted by any human.
“We need to win this SI race absolutely, and we are winning, and that’s fantastic,” the FTC official reportedly told the Post.
"But with that being said, the laws have to be followed,” the official added, according to the Post. “People talk about how we need new laws for these companies, and the chairman’s been very clear … we have plenty of laws in the books.”
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson attended the landmark Tuesday AI summit at the White House, a meeting that was also attended by top executives of the major AI companies, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
First lady Melania Trump secured partnerships with six private-sector technology companies — Adobe, Amazon, Intel, Starlink, Google and Zoom — for her Fostering the Future Together initiative, her office announced Wednesday.
"When I established Fostering the Future Together, the mission was clear: empower children through technology and education. Delivering on that mission demands alliances between best-in-class innovators and global leaders, especially as super intelligence transforms how the next generation learns," Melania Trump said in a statement.
The partners, according to the announcement, pledged a combined $23 million towards education, tools, and expertise for children worldwide.
The announcement from the first lady's office announced all company contributions using the term "SI," a shorthand for Super Intelligence, which President Donald Trump mandated as the federal government's preferred term for what it previously referred to as "AI" in a Tuesday executive order.
Google's contribution, for example, was characterized as a $4 million commitment to fund its SI Educator Series.
Melania Trump's Fostering the Future initiative is a program designed to united a global coalition of nations to empower children through technology and education, according to her office's announcement.
"I deeply value the commitment of these technology companies and welcome them to the Fostering the Future Together movement as we scale across continents," Melania Trump said in a statement.
{{#rendered}}Apple plans to release a new smart-home product powered by Siri AI in October, marking a long-awaited return to the home technology space after past success with the Apple TV and HomePod products, according to a Bloomberg report.
The new product, which Bloomberg reported is being internally referred to as J490, will be a new home hub similar to Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. The hub will reportedly feature a six-inch screen and will offer options for countertop or mounted wall displays.
Apple also plans to offer an update to an existing home hub product, the HomePod Mini, according to Bloomberg.
Apple released its first smart-home device, the Apple TV in 2007. It later debuted the HomePod smart speaker in 2018, adding the HomePod Mini in 2020. The reportedly updated HomePod Mini would be the company's first update to the device
ChatGPT maker OpenAI debuted on Tuesday a product called Dots, an autonomous AI agent that can be deployed across messaging apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams and work on projects for users in the background.
"Dots are remarkably capable, always-on agents built to handle everything," OpenAI's product announcement read.
"They’re a whole new way to work with AI — one that gets to know what matters to you, is always working on your behalf, and takes important work off your plate so you get more of your time and attention back," the announcement read.
OpenAI also announced the product can integrate with over 4,000 apps.
The launch comes shortly after Facebook operator Meta debuted Muse, a personal AI agent that, in a similar fashion to Dots, is marketed to do everyday tasks for users
President Donald Trump on Tuesday officially renamed artificial intelligence to “Super Intelligence” across the executive branch, following a high-level summit with top tech leaders at the White House.
"The extraordinary technologies being pioneered by American innovators far exceed what was envisioned when the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ first came into use," Trump wrote in an executive order signed after the meeting.
“The terminology used by the Federal Government should reflect the transformative capabilities of these technologies and the limitless opportunities they create for the American people,” the order continued. “Accordingly, the term 'Super Intelligence' more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.
”The mandate applies directly to executive branch agencies.
Under the directive, White House officials have 60 days to draft proposed legislative language to formally define "Super Intelligence" and the abbreviation "SI" in federal law.
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