ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has announced that it has terminated an intern over allegations of “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its AI projects. The company, however, disputes the alleged severity of the damage caused, highlighting that reports on the incident contain “exaggerations and inaccuracies.”
The incident gained traction over the weekend on social media, prompting ByteDance to provide clarifying details. The company’s Doubao model, a generative AI project comparable to ChatGPT, is a leading AI chatbot in China.
TikTok Owner Fires Intern
ByteDance released a statement specifying, “The individual was an intern with the advertising technology team and lacks experience within the AI Lab.” The statement also indicated inaccuracies in the intern’s social media accounts and some media reports.
The company stressed that its commercial online operations, inclusive of its large language AI models, remained unimpacted by the intern’s conduct. ByteDance also denied that the incident caused damages exceeding $10 million (£7.7 million) by disturbing an AI project utilizing thousands of high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs).
In addition to terminating the intern in August, ByteDance reported informing the intern’s university and relevant industry organizations about the incident.
As a significant entity in the tech sector, ByteDance operates some of the world’s most popular social media platforms, including TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin. The company is renowned for its algorithm development, substantially boosting user engagement across its platforms.
Similar to its competitors both within China and globally, ByteDance is making substantial investments in AI initiatives. The company employs AI technology not only for its Doubao chatbot but also across various applications, such as a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.
