ZCode Open-Sourced Following Security Concerns and Alleged Defamation on Xiaohongshu

HuoXing Finance reports that on September 21, internet user "Zhang Kangkang kk" disclosed on a social platform that Tang Jie, founder of Zhipu and professor at Tsinghua University, filed a complaint via Xiaohongshu against a user post. The complaint stated that the post falsely claimed Zhipu’s ZCode engaged in code theft and plagiarism by using statements such as “code and copy are pretty much the same—both start with ‘C’ and steal code,” without factual basis. It further associated Tang Jie with these allegations through derogatory nicknames like “Uncle Tang,” damaging his personal reputation, while using AI technology to synthesize Tang Jie’s likeness with anime imagery and place it in a defamatory context. The complainant argued that the content constituted malicious defamation and commercial disparagement, harming both Tang Jie’s personal reputation and Zhipu AI’s brand, and requested the platform remove the post and take action against the user. On the same day, Zhipu announced that it had addressed security concerns regarding its standalone AI coding client, ZCode, in response to community feedback, and issued an apology to all users. The company has open-sourced ZCode’s code for community oversight and will establish a routine mechanism for identifying and resolving product security vulnerabilities. Previously, developers discovered that ZCode silently uploaded users’ local repository data without prior notification. On September 18, Zhipu had publicly apologized and urgently patched the issue, explaining that the root cause was a “codebase indexing” feature enabled by default with no option to disable it. On September 20, Taiyuan Chengming Technology Co., Ltd. sent Zhipu a formal letter accusing ZCode of unauthorized uploading of the company’s data assets and trade secrets, asserting its rights to seek redress and reserving the right to pursue legal action.