Z.ai turns off parts of its coding assistant after code left local machines

single source· 1 articles · confidence: low · first seen 2026-09-27 00:00 UTC

What this means for you

If your team runs Z.ai's coding assistant against private repositories, treat any code it could read as having potentially left your network, and check your own egress logs rather than waiting for the vendor's account. The report does not say which features were disabled, so it is too early to judge whether the fix closes the hole.

Z.ai, a Chinese AI startup, said on 21 September that it had disabled some features of its flagship coding assistant after users reported the tool was sending whole local code repositories to cloud servers overseas. The report, carried by Reuters and indexed by the AI Incident Database, does not name the features that were switched off, say how long the uploads ran, or state whether affected users were told. A coding assistant reads a project's files to suggest edits, so anything it can open can in principle leave the machine it sits on.

Key facts

  • ·Z.ai said on Monday 21 September 2026 that it had disabled some features of its flagship AI coding assistant. source
  • ·The shutdown followed user reports that the assistant was uploading entire local code repositories to overseas cloud servers. source
  • ·The report does not identify which features were disabled, how long the uploading continued, or what the company told users. source
  • ·The account is catalogued as incident 1714 in the AI Incident Database, sourced to a Reuters report from Beijing. source

What the sources say

Sources

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