ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has fired an intern for “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence models. The company rejected claims about the extent of the damage caused by the individual, saying they “contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies.”
The incident was reported over the weekend on Chinese social media. ByteDance’s Doubao, a ChatGPT-like generative AI model, is the country’s most popular AI chatbot.
In a statement, ByteDance said, “The individual was an intern with the [advertising] technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab. Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies.”
The company added that its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, were unaffected by the intern’s actions. ByteDance denied reports that the incident caused more than $10 million of damage by disrupting an AI training system made up of thousands of powerful graphics processing units.
Besides firing the person in August, ByteDance said it had informed the intern’s university and industry bodies about the incident.
ByteDance handles intern AI interference
ByteDance operates some of the world’s most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese equivalent, Douyin.
The company is widely regarded as a leader in algorithm development due to the high appeal of its apps among users. Like many of its peers in China and around the world, ByteDance is investing heavily in AI. It uses the technology to power its Doubao chatbot as well as many other applications, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.
This incident comes amid heightened scrutiny on tech companies globally over the safety and security of generative AI models. ByteDance is also under particular scrutiny in the United States, where it has until January 19 to sell its stake in TikTok to an approved buyer or face potential closure. The US government claims that TikTok poses a national security threat, an allegation that ByteDance strongly disputes.
