TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has announced the dismissal of an intern for “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
However, the company refuted claims regarding the severity of the damage caused by the individual, stating that the reports “contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies.”
This statement follows widespread reports about the incident circulating on social media over the weekend.
ByteDance’s Doubao, a ChatGPT-like generative AI model, is currently the most popular AI chatbot in China.
“The individual was an intern with the [advertising] technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab,” ByteDance said in a statement.
“Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies.”
ByteDance clarified that its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, were not impacted by the intern’s actions.
The company also dismissed claims that the incident caused over $10 million in damage by disrupting an AI training system composed of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs).
In addition to terminating the intern in August, ByteDance reported the incident to the individual’s university and relevant industry bodies.
As the owner of popular social media platforms like TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, ByteDance is recognized as a leader in algorithm development, contributing to the wide appeal of its apps.
Like other major tech companies globally, ByteDance is making significant investments in AI, using the technology to enhance its Doubao chatbot and other applications, including the text-to-video tool Jimeng.