Z.ai founders participated in AI project funded by institute linked to Chinese spies

A Chinese government-hosted report reveals that four of Z.ai’s five founders contributed to a four-year AI research collaboration that ran from January 2018 through December 2021, funded jointly by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China with a total budget of 2.94 million yuan. MI5’s September 30 espionage alert described CGTRI as having “very strong ties” to China’s Ministry of State Security and warned of criminal consequences for work funded by the institute, although Z.ai was not specifically mentioned.

Z.ai, also known as Zhipu, went public in Hong Kong in January and now has a market capitalisation of about US$32 billion; it has previously been barred from US technology access over alleged military AI assistance and accused of extracting proprietary data from US rivals. Chinese embassy spokespeople called the MI5 allegations baseless, while US officials declined to comment. The research sought to create AI tools for analysing social-media posts, spotting key events and mapping connections, including a knowledge base of “China-related key persons”. Experts highlighted the dual-use nature of the work and its potential value to Chinese intelligence agencies.