TikTok's Parent Company ByteDance's Researcher Under Fire For Allegedly Spying On US AI Safety Conversations

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has accused a researcher from ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, of unauthorized access to an American artificial intelligence (AI) safety group chat.

What Happened: The researcher, based in California, was added to a Slack instance for discussions between NIST’s U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute Consortium members. Reuters reported that the individual was added as a volunteer by a consortium member but was subsequently removed upon discovering her employment with ByteDance, citing a person familiar with the matter.

“Once NIST became aware that the individual was an employee of ByteDance, they were swiftly removed for violating the consortium’s code of conduct on misrepresentation,” NIST said, according to the report.

The appearance of the ByteDance researcher in the consortium, which includes major American tech companies, universities, AI startups, and others, raised concerns. This comes amid the ongoing national debate over whether TikTok has created a backdoor for the Chinese government to spy on or manipulate Americans.

The consortium’s objectives include creating guidelines for the safe deployment of AI programs and aiding researchers in detecting and addressing security vulnerabilities in their models. NIST disclosed that the consortium’s Slack instance hosts around 850 users.

The researcher, as indicated on her LinkedIn profile as being based in California, failed to respond to messages. Similarly, ByteDance did not reply to emails requesting comments, as stated in the report.

See Also: Elon Musk Once Revealed Why He ‘Stopped’ Using TikTok: It’s ‘Probing My Brain’

Why It Matters: The incident comes at a critical juncture for TikTok. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would compel ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets within six months or face a nationwide ban. This move has been seen as a potential leverage for the U.S. in its ongoing tensions with China.

The controversy also follows a recent slowdown in TikTok’s user growth, attributed to mounting pressure from Congress. The platform’s venture into e-commerce has also sparked discontent among users, while its main competitor, Instagram Reels, has been making significant strides.

Meanwhile, the potential sale or U.S. ban of TikTok could have a significant impact on content creators and rival social media platforms.

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Image by Dall-E