Britain’s MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organization was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing’s state security service. In its “Espionage Alert”, MI5 said more than 100 UK-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had “very strong ties” to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing’s civilian intelligence service.
“MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage,” the alert said.
“UK academics have contributed to CGTRI-funded projects on topics including Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, covert communications systems and steganography. This activity supports MSS espionage, which poses a threat to UK national security.”
Steganography is the practice of hiding information within messages or objects.
The warning, which MI5 said was the first time it had independently published an alert publicly, is the latest in a series of accusations concerning Chinese espionage activities, and highlights the tension between British security concerns and the government’s moves to build ties with Beijing.
China’s embassy in Britain described the allegations as “imaginary and purely fabricated”.
“We firmly oppose such baseless allegations and have lodged solemn representations with the UK side,” an embassy spokesperson said in a statement.
“We urge the UK intelligence authorities to stop spreading falsehoods and stop undermining educational exchanges and research cooperation between China and the UK.”
by CNN – UK accuses China of using academics to spy on AI and other tech research
