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Adam Bain (@adambain) called the practice 'absolutely shameful' on 2026-08-07 and…

2026-08-07 · 01:42 UTC ·@adambain ·1 min read

Brief

Adam Bain and Ali Ansari condemn U.S. data providers for sharing datasets with Chinese labs, calling the practice 'absolutely shameful' and urging public pledges to refuse data transfers to foreign adversaries. They praise @micro1ai, single out @mercorai and @HelloSurgeAI, and warn exporting anonymized operational datasets or 'recipes' to China undermines U.S. AI labs and national security.

Why it matters

Adam Bain (@adambain) called the practice 'absolutely shameful' on 2026-08-07 and demanded every company in the data ecosystem publicly commit not to provide data to foreign adversary labs; he praised @micro1_ai and urged @mercor_ai and @HelloSurgeAI to admit mistakes and stop.

Key details

  • Ali Ansari (@aliansarinik) argued selling data to Chinese labs to optimize short-term revenue 'serves an adversarial nation,' claiming model improvement depends on data and that sending the 'recipe' for what data pushes the frontier harms U.S. AI labs and the U.S. government.
  • Ansari warned many datasets require anonymized real operational data from U.S. companies, so selling such environments to Chinese labs effectively exports U.S. company data at large scale and 'must stop.'
Source evidence

This is absolutely shameful.

Every company in the data ecosystem should publicly commit not to provide data to foreign adversary labs.

@micro1_ai did this early and loud.

@mercor_ai, @HelloSurgeAI: it’s not too late to admit you’ve made a mistake and to stop it.

Ali Ansari (@aliansarinik)

Shameful act to optimize for short term revenue increases and serve an adversarial nation in the most important race of our lifetime.

The only way models improve is through data. if you have the recipe on what data pushes the frontier and send that to China, you are doing a disservice to U.S. AI Labs as well as the U.S. government.

Beyond that, a large portion of datasets today require anonymized real operational data from U.S. companies. Selling such environments to Chinese labs means exporting U.S. company data directly to China at a large scale.

This must stop.

— https://nitter.net/aliansarinik/status/2085535522001444932#m