Ethical Stack.

Z.ai

Z.ai’s hosted GLM assistant for chat, search, and multimodal tasks.

Score calculation

(3 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 7) ÷ 5 = 3.2

5 of six dimensions rated. Unrated dimensions are excluded from the average.

Full scoring method ↗
Setup details

Z.ai consumer web chat under the individual-user policy; excludes business/API services and ZCode.

What fits your needs

Z.ai consumer web chat under the individual-user policy; excludes business/API services and ZCode.

Where it fits

Use the hosted assistant for general chat and search tasks without configuring an API.

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Tradeoffs to expect

Route and limits

The individual-user policy covers prompt content and service improvement; business/API terms are a separate route.

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How to switch

Try it

Create an account if required, then compare a routine task and its settings against your current assistant.

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Practical questions

Before relying on it

Review current privacy controls, deletion behavior, and selected model before sending sensitive or regulated data.

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Energy practices

3/10↑

Public docs establish the Z.ai consumer chat service route; they don’t show its request-level physical footprint. The interface exposes changing GLM models and task modes; model choice is a workload control, though no energy reduction is measured.

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This practices and disclosure grade covers Z.ai consumer chat service. Public product/API documentation establishes how this route operates and the listed user controls, but gives no measured per-request energy, emissions or water. A corporate electricity claim is not allocated to this route.

1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 1 controls = 3/10. This grades documented practices and transparency.

Request-level electricity, emissions, water use, serving utilization and any route-specific clean-power matching are not reported for Z.ai consumer chat service.

Reporting1/3
Official documentation describes the Z.ai consumer chat service operating boundary, but does not publish a dated quantitative energy, emissions or water result for this route.
Electricity sourcing0/3
The reviewed sources do not map Z.ai consumer chat service to a site-specific electricity mix or time-matched clean-power supply.
Resource controls1/3
The interface exposes changing GLM models and task modes; model choice is a workload control, though no energy reduction is measured.

Water disclosure

Water reporting has not been assessed for this choice.

Training data

—Depends on the model↑

The service may change among GLM versions; select the model/version separately to evaluate training data and rights evidence.

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The consumer policy concerns use of submitted chats for service improvement and training. It doesn’t confirm the training-data provenance or permissions for the GLM weights served by the selected model.

Exact model/version, training data inventory, source permissions, post-training data, and creator remedies vary or remain unpublished for the selected route.

Your data & privacy

3/10↑

The individual-user policy says prompts and other user content are processed to provide the service; it also describes use of service data to improve and develop products and models.

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Z.ai’s individual-user policy covers the website and apps, collects prompt content and usage details, and says it may use information to improve and develop services, including model training. Users can delete conversations and request deletion, but the policy does not set a fixed prompt-retention window or a clear training opt-out in the reviewed text.

Content is processed for the service and may support improvement/model training; deletion controls exist, while route retention and a training opt-out are not clearly bounded.

Exact prompt retention, regional processing for each feature, and whether a separate setting excludes conversations from model improvement need checking in current account settings.

Openness

2/10↑

A hosted consumer assistant; no self-hostable runtime or downloadable Z.ai service weights are supplied with this app.

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The consumer app exposes a hosted interface and feature set, while its reviewed materials do not provide deployable serving code or service weights. This rating covers the hosted product, not GLM model releases.

Hosted consumer service without a self-deployable product runtime in the reviewed scope.

The GLM model family may have separate public weights, licensing, and deployment terms; these do not change the app runtime.

Worker protections

1/10↑

Z.ai’s company and GLM model materials reviewed don’t show employment protections, worker voice, supplier labor standards or labor assurance.

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The sources reviewed provide product, terms, or corporate information but no qualifying disclosure about conditions for data annotators, evaluators, moderators, or infrastructure workers. This is a disclosure gap within the checked materials, not evidence that workers are mistreated or that no labor policy exists. These findings concern the developer or operator. This product’s use in a particular deployment needs separate evidence.

1 + 0 pay & conditions + 0 worker voice & remedy + 0 evidence & follow-through = 1/10. This grades documented worker safeguards, not a measured rate of mistreatment.

Worker counts, locations, pay, labor protections, worker voice mechanisms, supplier coverage, and independent audit or remediation outcomes were not established in the sources reviewed.

Pay & conditions0/3
Reviewed sources provide no qualifying disclosure of worker conditions; this zero is limited to the checked material and is not an exhaustive claim.
Worker voice & remedy0/3
No qualifying worker-voice mechanism or documented worker grievance outcomes were disclosed in the reviewed material.
Evidence & follow-through0/3
No independent labor audit results, worker-level corroboration, or remediation outcomes were disclosed in the reviewed material.
Workers rubric ↗

Military ties

7/10Not established↑

No Z.ai defense contract or deployment is identified; legacy ChatGLM2 restrictions are not generalized to current GLM models.

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Z.ai’s current company and GLM-5.3 materials reviewed don’t confirm a defense contract or military deployment. A military-purpose clause in a separate legacy ChatGLM2 license is not generalized to GLM-5.3 or the company; no relevant restriction is credited without model-specific evidence. These findings concern the developer or operator. This product’s use in a particular deployment needs separate evidence.

7 base + 0 safeguard adjustment = 7/10 (0 of 9 safeguard points; every 3 adds 1). No military relationship was established in the cited sources. This ranks above known defense ties without claiming a verified clean record.

Complete contract texts, undisclosed customers, end-use restrictions, actual workload deployment, and independent compliance or outcome reports are unavailable in the reviewed public material.

Use restrictions0/4
The reviewed terms or policy material contains no qualifying military-use restriction beyond general lawfulness/export compliance; this zero is limited to the reviewed source set.
Enforcement & oversight0/3
No military-specific review, enforcement, or remedy mechanism was disclosed in the sources reviewed.
Relationship disclosure0/2
No military-specific relationship or military-specific transparency policy was disclosed in the materials reviewed; this is a scoped disclosure finding.

The reviewed Z.ai company and model materials do not identify a defense contract or military deployment. A ChatGLM2 model license contains a military-purpose restriction, but that legacy model-specific license is not treated as a blanket current company policy.

Military rubric ↗

BDS targets

Not listed↑

We did not find Z.ai among the named targets in the two official BNC campaign lists. This is a limited list check, not BDS approval.

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Z.ai is not a named target in the checked lists, but BDS uses selective campaigns, so absence cannot establish a clean record. Running downloaded weights locally is a different decision from paying the developer or a cloud host; check the host as well. These findings concern the developer or operator. This product’s use in a particular deployment needs separate evidence.

This review covers the named targets in the BNC consumer/pressure guide and No Tech campaign, not every BDS campaign, local group, investment or supplier. Lists and ownership can change. A company’s absence from these lists is not an endorsement or proof that it has no relevant relationships.

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