New research shows that AI models created using open-source Chinese versions like DeepSeek’s and Moonshot’s do not always adhere to the same censorship guidelines as purely Chinese models. When researchers asked a question about Uyghur detention camps in China, one of DeepSeek’s open-source AI models claimed there was no evidence they existed, while an AI model distilled from that DeepSeek model said evidence shows the Chinese state held Uyghurs in “internment-type facilities.” The findings undercut one of the US government’s top concerns that Chinese open-source AI models are a pathway for Chinese political ideas to infiltrate users’ views. CTGT, a San Francisco-based AI lab, built a new AI model using DeepSeek V4 Flash’s outputs as training data through distillation. The DeepSeek model either refused to answer politically sensitive questions or “whitewashed” them, but CTGT’s research calls into question whether censorship traits transfer. The research lands amid an active debate inside the Trump administration over how to handle the risk posed by Chinese open-source models. Officials also fear hidden security backdoors, though that fear has never been established with solid evidence.