\n<\/p>\n
TikTok owner, ByteDance, says it has sacked an intern for “maliciously interfering” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.<\/p>\n
But the firm rejected claims about the extent of the damage caused by the unnamed individual, saying they “contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies”.<\/p>\n
It comes after reports about the incident spread over the weekend on social media.<\/p>\n
The Chinese technology giant’s Doubao ChatGPT-like generative AI model is the country’s most popular AI chatbot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“The individual was an intern with the [advertising] technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab,” ByteDance said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies.”<\/p>\n
Its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, were unaffected by the intern’s actions, the company added.<\/p>\n
ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused more than $10m (\u00a37.7m) of damage by disrupting an AI training system made up of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPU).<\/p>\n
As well as firing the person in August, ByteDance said it had informed the intern’s university and industry bodies about the incident.<\/p>\n
ByteDance operates some of the world’s most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese-equivalent Douyin. <\/p>\n
It is widely seen as a leader when it comes to algorithm development due to how appealing its apps are to users.<\/p>\n
Like many of its peers in China and around the world, the social media giant is investing heavily in AI.<\/p>\n
It uses the technology to power its Doubao chatbot as well as many other applications, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n