TikTok's parent company ByteDance fires intern for sabotaging AI project
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has fired an intern for "maliciously interfering" with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models. Dismissing claims about the extent of damage caused by this individual as "exaggerations and inaccuracies," the company said it has already taken necessary action. The development comes after social media went abuzz about the incident over the weekend.
Intern's involvement and ByteDance's clarification
The intern was a member of ByteDance's advertising technology team, and had no previous experience with the AI Lab. "Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies," the company said. Nonetheless, ByteDance confirmed that its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, remain unaffected by the intern's actions.
Claims of extensive damage refuted
ByteDance has denied reports claiming the incident caused over $10 million worth of damage, by interrupting an AI training system comprising thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs). The company confirmed the same while announcing the intern's termination. Further, ByteDance has also informed the intern's university and relevant industry bodies about the incident.
ByteDance's prominence in social media and AI
ByteDance is famous for running some of the most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin. The company is also considered a leader in algorithm development, thanks to the popularity of its apps among users. Just like many global tech giants, ByteDance is also making a big bet on AI technology to power apps like its Doubao chatbot, and a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.
