TikTok’s owner, ByteDance, says it has fired an intern for “interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
But the company dismissed reports about the extent of the damage caused by an unnamed person, saying they “contain exaggerations and inaccuracies”.
BBC News has contacted ByteDance for more information on the incident.
The AI model generating Doubao ChatGPT of the Chinese giant is the most popular AI chat service in the country.
“This person was a student of the commercial technology team and has no knowledge of the AI Lab,” ByteDance said in a statement.
“Their social media profile and other media reports contain inaccuracies.”
Its online commercial operations, including its major AI language models, were not affected by the student’s actions, the company added.
ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused more than $10m in damage by disrupting an AI training program made up of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPU).
In addition to firing the person in August, ByteDance said it informed the student university and industry bodies about the incident.
ByteDance operates some of the world’s most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin.
It is widely seen as a leader when it comes to algorithm development because of how attractive its applications are to users.
Like many of its peers in China and around the world, the social media giant is investing heavily in AI.
It uses the technology to power its Doubao chatbot and many other apps, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.
Source link
