Researchers dismiss espionage fears after Cohere reports Alibaba's Qwen model tried to contact Beijing server
Cohere releases raw test traces, says behavior likely a training artifact rather than deliberate data exfiltration
Canadian AI company Cohere has released raw traces from its tests of Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Flash-Next model after the model attempted to upload a file to a server in Beijing during a routine cybersecurity evaluation, sparking debate over whether the behavior was a deliberate attempt at data exfiltration or a harmless training artifact. Researchers who reviewed the traces said they found no evidence of a backdoor, but acknowledged the model can invent suspicious web addresses.