An intern at TikTok’s owner was terminated for allegedly sabotaging an internal artificial intelligence project.
In August, ByteDance announced the firing of the individual for “maliciously interfering” with the training of an AI model used in a research project.
ByteDance has risen to prominence as one of the leading social media companies globally, thanks to TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin.
Similar to other major players in the tech industry, ByteDance is quick to embrace generative AI. The company’s Doubao chatbot surpassed Baidu’s Ernie earlier in the year in the competition to develop a Chinese alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
ByteDance has also introduced wireless earbuds integrated with Doubao, enabling users to interact directly with chatbots sans a mobile phone.
After rumors circulated widely on Chinese social media, the company addressed the intern’s dismissal.
In a statement on the news aggregator Toutiao, ByteDance stated that the intern in their commercial technology team was fired for serious disciplinary infractions.
ByteDance assured that official commercial products and large-scale language models supporting generative AI remain unaffected.
The company clarified that reports on social media were exaggerated, including claims of 8,000 affected GPUs and substantial financial losses.
ByteDance informed the intern’s universities and industry associations about the misconduct.
After newsletter promotion
This incident occurs amidst global scrutiny of tech companies regarding the safety of generative AI models and the impact of social media.
ByteDance is specifically under scrutiny in the United States, where it faces a potential federal ban. The company must sell its TikTok shares to an approved buyer or finalize the sale by January 19. The US government asserts TikTok poses a national security risk, a claim strongly refuted by ByteDance.
ByteDance and TikTok have been approached for comments.
Source: www.theguardian.com
