ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has announced the termination of an intern for “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
However, the company has pushed back against claims regarding the severity of the impact caused by this individual, asserting that such reports contain exaggerations and inaccuracies.
The news of the incident gained traction over the weekend on social media platforms.
ByteDance’s Doubao, a generative AI model akin to ChatGPT, is currently one of China’s most popular chatbots.
In a statement, ByteDance clarified that the intern worked within the advertising technology team and had no prior experience with the AI Lab.
“Inaccuracies exist in both their social media profile and some media reports,” the company emphasized.
They also noted that their commercial online operations, including their advanced language AI models, remained unaffected by the intern’s actions.
ByteDance disputed claims that the incident caused over $10 million in damages due to disruption of an AI training system powered by thousands of graphics processing units (GPUs).
Alongside the intern’s dismissal in August, ByteDance has reported the incident to the intern’s university and relevant industry bodies.
As a leader in algorithm development, ByteDance operates some of the most popular social media applications, including TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin.
The company, like many of its competitors globally, is heavily investing in AI technologies, utilizing them for various applications, including its Doubao chatbot and a text-to-video tool named Jimeng.
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