“became the top rated free application”
FREE comes with a price, that price most likely is a spy tool.
--- "FREE comes with a price, that price most likely is a spy tool."
Delete "most likely." It is a spy tool.
Consider how many online apps and updates and all the rest are accompanied by sales pitches and how many websites -- even ostensible conservative sites -- begin their pitches with "input name and email" and the like.
The CCP is no fool. They watch and learn. And they are offering FREE, just as do so many social media sites, busy with their own "collections."
We should remember "we" are the data as well as the access they want.
I get suspicion with China but this isn't some software package that you download and run. It's a model that you run in your own infrastructure and applications. It's a different tech AND they released the code and they model weights (the inner design parameters) as free open source. There is a concern with bias (the commies used suspect training data that represents their world view - ask it about Taiwan for example and you get no nuance, it's part of China - period , for example). So you might think 'can it be trusted or is it trying to influence us subtly' maybe but I think the traditional idea of spyware isn't relevant.
Let's face it: China isn't eating our lunch on AI but it's certainly pacing us neck and neck and they may be leading in some ways.