Bloomberg identified four Z.AI Co., Ltd. co-founders as project participants in research partly funded by CGTRI; Britain’s Security Service (MI5) calls the institute’s ties to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) “very strong.”
MI5’s Sept. 30 alert identified CGTRI as the China General Technology Research Institute and said it funds academic work intended to strengthen the MSS’s espionage capabilities. Z.AI, the founders and their project were not mentioned.
MI5 said more than 100 academics with UK links had contributed to projects funded by the MSS through CGTRI. Some of those researchers may not have known the institute was involved, the agency said.
Bloomberg identified the Z.AI participants as Li Juanzi, Tang Jie, Xu Bin and Zhang Peng, citing a 78-page project report. The National Natural Science Foundation of China co-funded the project with CGTRI, Bloomberg reported; its approved budget was 2.94 million yuan for work conducted between Jan. 2018 and Dec. 2021.
Bloomberg said the research envisioned AI systems that would mine social-media posts for emerging events and reveal links among people. Its description of the project concerned proposed capabilities, not evidence that the tools were deployed.
A Z.AI filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange identifies Li, Tang, Xu and Zhang as co-founders and Zhang as chief executive. A Tsinghua University profile separately lists Li’s work from 2018 to 2021 on analyzing people and China-related events using multiple data sources. The profile does not mention CGTRI.
China’s Embassy in Britain disputed MI5’s allegations against CGTRI, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg said Z.AI and the four founders did not respond to its requests for comment.
MI5 strongly advised UK academic institutions to review current and planned CGTRI collaborations immediately. It also urged researchers working with Chinese institutions to establish who ultimately funds their projects.
