Four founders of Zhipu AI, one of China's leading artificial intelligence startups, participated in a research project jointly funded by a technology institute that Britain's MI5 has identified as an espionage operation, according to Bloomberg1,2.
The China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI) co-funded the project alongside the National Natural Science Foundation of China. MI5 published an assessment titled "Espionage Alert" on September 30, stating that CGTRI exists primarily to fund academic research that directly strengthens the technical capabilities of China's main intelligence agencies for espionage activities. The British government said the institute maintains "very strong links" with Chinese intelligence agencies.
The project ran for approximately four years, from January 2018 to December 2021, overlapping with 2019, the year Zhipu AI was founded. It was led by Li Juanzi, a Zhipu AI co-founder and professor in the department of computer science and technology at Tsinghua University. She worked alongside Cao Weibing of CGTRI and a professor at Southeast University.
A 78-page report summarizing the project's findings stated that the three leaders were "jointly responsible for designing the overall technical plan, coordinating work among the three participating institutions and overseeing research progress across the project".
ANALYSIS The overlap between the CGTRI-funded research period and Zhipu AI's founding raises questions about the degree to which work product from the project informed the company's early technical direction. The MI5 disclosure also adds a concrete data point to ongoing Western scrutiny of ties between Chinese AI companies and state intelligence infrastructure.