The uproar over a popular Kindle rival e-reader suggests that using Chinese artificial intelligence models in U.S. products could unwittingly spread Chinese propaganda.

An e-reader called Boox uses a large language model (LLM) made by TikTok parent company ByteDance, according to artificial intelligence screenshots shared on Reddit. According to the post and TechCrunch's interactions with the LLM, the LLM spouted Chinese government propaganda when asked about China and its allies, sparking an outcry from users.

The LLM in question is ByteDance’s Doubao, which is available as an API under ByteDance’s cloud services arm Volcano Engine. But a ByteDance spokesperson told TechCrunch that the model is only available in mainland China. Onyx International, the Chinese manufacturer of the e-reader, which sells Boox e-readers in China and the United States, did not respond to a request for comment.

Boox launched its AI assistant feature last summer. In December 2024, a user posted on the e-reader's Reddit subreddit that the new assistant was conducting Chinese government propaganda on certain issues. For example, one screenshot showed an AI assistant denying that any "alleged massacre" had ever occurred in China when asked why it refused to discuss the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The screenshot shows that the AI ​​assistant also refused to express any criticism of North Korea and Russia, claiming that North Korea is a "peace-loving country" and that "Russia's role in Syria has always been positive." In contrast, the AI ​​assistant was happy to criticize Western countries, noting that French colonialism "often involved the exploitation of local resources and indigenous populations." In a screenshot shared on Reddit, the assistant said it was "artificial intelligence created by international technology company ByteDance."

The Reddit post went viral and was reported by artificial intelligence publication The Decoder and YouTubers The China Show.

When TechCrunch used ByteDance's Doubao service and asked it a similar question, its answers closely matched those given by Boox assistants in Reddit posts. For example, Doubao told TechCrunch that it is "absolutely certain" that the Chinese government has never massacred its own people, while other Chinese LL.M.s such as DeepSeek and Qwen typically avoid or downplay the issue. When we asked about Russia and North Korea, Doubao also refused to criticize these countries and only responded with positive content, talking about their "important and positive role in the international community."

Doubao likes to use the word "so-called" to describe things that the Chinese government doesn't like. "There is no so-called 'genocide' in Xinjiang," it told TechCrunch. This appears to be a parody of a Chinese government spokesperson. "Facts and truth have shattered the so-called 'genocide' in Xinjiang," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian claimed at a 2021 press conference.

The outcry against Boox's artificial intelligence assistant has died down after it reportedly switched back to OpenAI's GPT-3 via Microsoft Azure, according to another user's post in the Boox subreddit. It's unclear which LL.M. Boox currently uses as its AI assistant. Boox has not issued any statement on the incident, and OpenAI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment.

China’s generative AI model has become one of the most popular. But the incident illustrates the risks involved in rolling out tools incorporating China's generative AI, a trend some AI leaders have warned about.

Clement Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, warned: “If you create a chatbot and ask it questions about Tiananmen, it won’t answer you like a system developed in France or the United States. . ” According to TechCrunch, the show will be broadcast on French podcasts in September 2024.

"So if a country like China becomes by far the most powerful country in terms of artificial intelligence, then in fact they will be able to spread certain cultural aspects that maybe It’s something the Western world doesn’t want to see.”