TikTok Parent Fires Intern For 'Maliciously Interfering' With AI Training, Denies $10M Damage Claims Amid Social Media Outcry

Chinese tech giant ByteDance Ltd. has dismissed an intern for allegedly disrupting the training of one of its artificial intelligence models.

What Happened: ByteDance, the parent company of popular social media platform TikTok, has reportedly fired an intern for intentionally interfering with the training of one of its AI models, reported BBC.

The intern, whose identity remains undisclosed, was part of the advertising technology team and had no prior experience with the AI Lab.

ByteDance, however, refuted claims that the intern’s actions caused significant damage, stating that the reports contained “exaggerations and inaccuracies.” The company assured that its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, were not affected by the intern’s actions.

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Despite reports suggesting that the disruption caused over $10 million in damages, ByteDance denied these claims. The company also revealed that the intern was dismissed in August, and the incident was reported to the intern’s university and industry bodies.

ByteDance, known for its popular social media apps like TikTok and Douyin, is a leader in algorithm development and heavily invests in AI, which powers its Doubao chatbot and other applications.

Why It Matters: This incident comes at a time when ByteDance has been making headlines for its AI and algorithm-related activities. The company has been shifting its focus towards AI-based content moderation, leading to significant job cuts.

ByteDance’s AI algorithms have also been under scrutiny for their potentially harmful effects on children, as revealed in leaked internal documents.

These developments have led to legal action, with 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia suing TikTok for causing harm to its younger users.

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This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote