The following message from the Ministry of State Security (MSS)—China’s main civilian intelligence agency—warns Chinese citizens about the dangers of “AI aggregator” services. These platforms, which facilitate Chinese access to foreign AI models, often have poor security and can lead to privacy breaches and even theft of state secrets, according to MSS.

An archived version of the Chinese source text is available online at:    https://perma.cc/4LXJ-TYDJ

We Must Guard Against the Risks of “AI Aggregators”

With the rapid growth in demand for artificial intelligence applications, AI aggregators (“AI中转站”), which provide bulk access to domestic and overseas large models, have been quickly gaining popularity in China for some time now. However, the current AI aggregator market is a mixed bag. Some AI aggregators lack the necessary operating qualifications and have weak security measures, leading to frequent leaks of users’ private information and unauthorized reselling of user data (数据倒卖). Such data security risks cannot be ignored.

What Is an AI Aggregator?

An AI aggregator serves as a proxy layer positioned between users and the official services of AI model providers. It integrates the application programming interfaces (APIs) of various AI model providers on a single platform, and then makes them available to users. Figuratively speaking, an AI aggregator is a “middleman” between users and large models, helping users access multiple large AI models more conveniently and meeting their diverse needs through a one-stop solution.

—No need to switch between models. Users only need to access a single aggregator entry point to invoke mainstream large models both at home and abroad, without having to switch back and forth.

—Relatively low cost. To attract users, some AI aggregators offer discounts and reward point rebates, making the cost of using the aggregator lower than the official list price.

—Convenient payment methods. Users can pay via mainstream domestic payment channels, making topping-up and use convenient.

—Bypass usage restrictions. Users can even use AI aggregators to bypass restrictions on network access, official authorization, and cross-border data transmission, and to connect directly to some overseas large models.

To view the rest of this translation, download the pdf below.