ByteDance Fires Intern for Sabotaging AI Model Training, Downplays Damage

Still cringing about your first internship? At least you didn't try to sabotage an AI project from one of China's biggest tech firms

Work experience is often hard won, with internships just being one possible trial by fire. Even if you're not mucking up the office coffee order ("What do you mean it needs to be the colour of 'burnt almonds!?'"), you're still left feeling like you can never know enough. Well, rest assured whatever early career misstep you made, it can't be as bad as the story about this former intern who used to work for ByteDance, the owner of embattled short-form video app TikTok itself. You may have already heard a rumour-mill version of this story, something along the lines of, 'intern injects malicious code into AI model, sabotaging 8000 GPUs and causing ByteDance to lose tens of millions of dollars.' Besides TikTok, ByteDance have also created Doubao, an incredibly popular AI chatbot Bloomberg called "China's answer to ChatGPT." Though in a recent social media post ByteDance said that none of their commercial projects were affected by the rumoured sabotage. That said, their statement reveals that there's more to this story (via Ars Technica). ByteDance have confirmed the intern was fired back in august for "serious disciplinary violations," including "maliciously [interfering] with the model training tasks" for at least one research project. ByteDance also says that the situation was serious enough to warrant reporting the intern's behaviour to their university, in addition to industry contacts besides that. According to ByteDance, the intern in question was part of the commercial technology team, not their AI lab. The implication of some available translations of ByteDance's statement suggest that the intern was part of an advertising team rather than a technical team, though commenters under the social post dispute the distinction, claiming that the commercial technology team was part of the AI lab. Ultimately, ByteDance claims the intern misrepresented some details on their social media profile, and that a number of resulting reports have overstated what happened as a result. Those 8000 GPUs and alleged millions lost? The company says that this was "seriously exaggerated" but then don't elaborate on the actual figures beyond that. Maybe as a result of this ambiguity, commenters took umbrage with this too, accusing ByteDance of downplaying the damage done. To summarise, a ByteDance intern -- who has since been fired -- did interfere with the company's AI model training. The company claims the damage is not as far-reaching as rumours suggest, though is unwilling to plainly state how consequential it really was, but still got the former intern's school involved in disciplinary action. And you thought your work experience was a disaster.

Intern Fired by TikTok Owner for Sabotaging Its AI Model

The intern involved maliciously interfered with the model training tasks..." ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, fired an intern who apparently screwed with the company's artificial intelligence projects. As Ars Technica and other outlets report, the social media firm has confirmed that the unnamed commercial team intern was terminated in August after he messed with ByteDance AI models. "The intern involved maliciously interfered with the model training tasks of the commercial technology team's research project," the company said in a statement on its content platform Toutiao, "but it did not affect the formal commercial projects and online business, nor did it involve other businesses such as ByteDance's large models." While the company did not say which AI project or projects the intern sabotaged, it could be one of at least 11 it operates -- many of which fall under Doubao, its OpenAI rival. In its statement, the company sought to dispel some "seriously exaggerated" claims about the debacle made elsewhere online -- a seeming reference to rumors suggesting that the intern had stolen thousands of graphic processing units (GPUs) and had been jailed for the infraction. ByteDance added that the offending intern had been reported to the industry organization he belonged to and "handed over" to his school for "handling." While the statement sounds plausible enough, commentators on ByteDance's Toutiao post are, as Ars notes, calling bull. When one person noted that the original rumors would have been "imprisoned long ago instead of just being fired," for instance, another user who seemed to know what they were talking about suggested the opposite. "The malicious code was used to deliberately sabotage the training for several months," the other user claimed. "The team's several months of research was in vain, but it did not directly affect the product line." "It's just a matter of whether the company wants to pursue it or not," they continued. "Based on what [he] did, it's totally enough." Parsing company statements in English and in the West is hard enough, and doing so through Google Translate and from the other side of the world is even more difficult -- especially considering China's culture of business secrecy. It's hard to say definitively if ByteDance is downplaying the severity of its situation -- but stranger things certainly have happened, especially in the chaotic AI industry.

TikTok just fired an intern for sabotaging its AI - Softonic

They say the incident caused damages worth more than 10 million dollars ByteDance, owner of TikTok, says it has fired an intern for 'maliciously interfering' with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models. We do not know at the moment if this is a hero or a villain. The company rejects the claims about the extent of the damage caused by the anonymous individual, saying that 'they contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies.' In other words, they don't want to acknowledge the extent of this sabotage, but it doesn't seem to be a minor issue. This comes after reports about the incident were spread over the weekend on social media, making it public in this way. The generative AI model Doubao ChatGPT from the Chinese tech giant is the most popular AI chatbot in the country. 'The individual was an intern with the [advertising] technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab,' ByteDance said in a statement. 'His social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies.' TikTok, for its part, says that its online business operations, including its large linguistic AI models, were not affected by the intern's actions, the company added. ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused damages worth more than 10 million dollars by disrupting an AI training system composed of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPU). In addition to dismissing the person in August, ByteDance said it had reported the incident to the intern's university and industry organizations. ByteDance operates some of the world's most popular social media apps, such as TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin. Like many of its counterparts in China and around the world, the social media giant is heavily investing in AI. It uses the technology to power its Doubao chatbot, as well as many other applications, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.

ByteDance intern fired for planting malicious code in AI models

Sabotage supposedly cost tens of millions, but TikTok owner ByteDance denies it. After rumors swirled that TikTok owner ByteDance had lost tens of millions after an intern sabotaged its AI models, ByteDance issued a statement this weekend hoping to silence all the social media chatter in China. In a social media post translated and reviewed by Ars, ByteDance clarified "facts" about "interns destroying large model training" and confirmed that one intern was fired in August. According to ByteDance, the intern had held a position in the company's commercial technology team but was fired for committing "serious disciplinary violations." Most notably, the intern allegedly "maliciously interfered with the model training tasks" for a ByteDance research project, ByteDance said. None of the intern's sabotage impacted ByteDance's commercial projects or online businesses, ByteDance said, and none of ByteDance's large models were affected. Online rumors suggested that more than 8,000 graphical processing units were involved in the sabotage and that ByteDance lost "tens of millions of dollars" due to the intern's interference, but these claims were "seriously exaggerated," ByteDance said. The tech company also accused the intern of adding misleading information to his social media profile, seemingly posturing that his work was connected to ByteDance's AI Lab rather than its commercial technology team. In the statement, ByteDance confirmed that the intern's university was notified of what happened, as were industry associations, presumably to prevent the intern from misleading others. ByteDance's statement this weekend didn't seem to silence all the rumors online, though. One commenter on ByteDance's social media post disputed the distinction between the AI Lab and the commercial technology team, claiming that "the commercialization team he is in was previously under the AI Lab. In the past two years, the team's recruitment was written as AI Lab. He joined the team as an intern in 2021, and it might be the most advanced AI Lab."

TikTok parent confirms it fired a rogue intern for tampering with its AI

Interns often become office scapegoats, but at TikTok parent company ByteDance, a junior employee may have caused some real damage. The Chinese technology company confirmed Saturday it fired an employee who allegedly "maliciously interfered" with the company's AI model training tasks. ByteDance, whose estimated valuation tops $220 billion, has raced to develop its generative AI product Doubao to compete with domestic and international rivals Baidu Inc. and OpenAI's ChatGPT. The race has grown more fevered, particularly as the space sees other market entrants, such as Nvidia's budding open source model. The tech company intern's dismissal followed widely circulated Chinese social media posts last weekend describing a trainee injecting code and altering parameters into a group of commercial graphics processing unit (GPU) computers, essentially planting a virus in the company's AI training system and allegedly causing up to $10 million in damages. Other posts allege the employee attended meetings about the impacts of the virus while "pretending to be clueless." ByteDance sacked the intern in August, according to a translated post by the company on its news platform Toutiao. The intern was on the commercial technology team and had no experience at the company's AI Lab, ByteDance claimed. The company alerted the intern's university to let it handle disciplinary action. The Chinese tech giant also denied parts of the swirling rumors around the firing, saying the loss of tens of millions or dollars and the involvement of 8,000 GPU cards was "seriously exaggerated." The company also said the intern's actions did not impact its online business, commercial projects, or ByteDance's large models. ByteDance did not respond to Fortune's request for comment. ByteDance may have a stronghold over video streaming with TikTok, but its path to AI primacy hasn't been as clear cut. It has been racing to catch up with Big Tech's efforts to produce an AI chatbot after CEO Liang Rubo implied during a company-wide meeting in January that ByteDance was late to the game in developing generative AI and had fallen behind ChatGPT and Baidu Inc. He pushed for a sense of urgency in developing its own gen AI. "We are not sensitive enough to external changes," Liang said, per the company's official WeChat account. "During our semi-annual technical review, discussions related to GPT did not emerge until 2023, despite GPT-1 being released in 2018." ByteDance quietly released its chatbot Doubao last year, reportedly using tech from ChatGPT, according to the Verge. A faux pas in the industry, borrowing other models could be seen as a scrappy act of desperation, sources told the outlet. A ByteDance spokesperson responded to those claims, saying the company was licensed and permitted to use ChatGPT's application programming interface. He also said ByteDance used ChatGPT in its model's early development for annotating purposes and later removed it. But ByteDance's unconventional development strategy may have paid off. In May, the company replaced Baidu as China's most popular AI chatbot. According to an August report by financial services company Unique Capital, the download rate of Doubao -- as well as ByteDance's video-editing app CapCut -- outpaced that of ChatGPT in July. The tech company's next test in its AI investment will be the success of wearable AI earbuds called Ola Friend, launched last week as an audio assistant able to provide access to Doubao without needing to connect with a user's smartphone. The product, available only in China, retails for $170.

TikTok owner fires intern who 'maliciously interfered' with AI project

TikTok's China-based parent company ByteDance fired an intern for allegedly sabotaging a training session about artificial intelligence. ByteDance confirmed the worker was canned in August after having "maliciously interfered" on a research project to train AI models. The company denied reports that the intern cost it "tens of millions of dollars," saying that those claims were "seriously exaggerated." "The intern involved maliciously interfered with the model training tasks of the commercial technology team's research project, but it did not affect the formal commercial projects and online business, nor did it involve other businesses such as ByteDance's large models," the TikTok owner wrote in the post on a Chinese social news platform. ByteDance, which employs more than 110,000 employees in more than 200 cities globally, is considered a tech leader when it comes to algorithm development. Last month, it was reported that ByteDance planned to develop an AI model trained primarily with chips from Chinese firm Huawei Technologies. ByteDance has diversified to domestic suppliers of chips used in artificial intelligence and accelerated development of its own since the US started restricting exports of advanced AI chips from firms like market leader Nvidia in 2022. AI has become central in sectors as varied as gaming and e-commerce. ByteDance's next step in the AI race is to use Huawei's Ascend 910B chip to train a large-language AI model, Reuters reported.

TikTok owner sacks intern for allegedly sabotaging AI project

ByteDance dismissed person in August it says 'maliciously interfered' with training of artificial intelligence models The owner of TikTok has sacked an intern for allegedly sabotaging an internal artificial intelligence project. ByteDance said it had dismissed the person in August after they "maliciously interfered" with the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models used in a research project. Thanks to the video-sharing app TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, which rank among the world's most popular mobile apps, ByteDance has risen to become one of the world's most important social media companies. Like other big players in the tech sector, ByteDance has raced to embrace generative AI. Its Doubao chatbot earlier this year took over from the competitor Baidu's Ernie in the race to produce a Chinese rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT. ByteDance has also released wireless earbuds that are integrated with Doubao, allowing users to interact with the chatbot directly without a mobile phone. The company commented on the sacking of the intern after rumours circulated widely on Chinese social media over the weekend. In a statement posted on its news aggregator service, Toutiao, ByteDance said that an intern in the commercial technology team had been dismissed for serious disciplinary violations, according to a translation. It added that its official commercial products and its large language models, the underlying technology for generative AI, had not been affected. The company said that reports and rumours on social media contained exaggerations, including over the scale of the disruption. ByteDance said this included rumours that as many as 8,000 graphical processing units, the chips used to train AI models, were affected, and that losses were in the tens of millions of dollars. ByteDance said that it had informed the intern's university and industry associations about their conduct. It comes amid scrutiny on tech companies around the world over the safety of generative AI models, and the effects of social media. ByteDance also faces particular scrutiny in the US, where it is fighting against a threatened federal ban. The company has until 19 January to sell its stake in TikTok to an approved buyer or close it. The US government contends that TikTok is a national security threat, an allegation ByteDance strongly disputes. ByteDance and TikTok were approached for comment.

TikTok Parent ByteDance Confirms Fired Intern Sabotaged AI Training

TikTok's China-based parent company ByteDance has confirmed it had to fire an intern whom it believes intentionally tried to sabotage its AI training. "An intern in the commercial technology team had committed serious disciplinary violations and the intern had been dismissed," reads a translation of a ByteDance post on Toutiao, a Chinese social news platform it also owns. "The intern involved maliciously interfered with the model training tasks of the commercial technology team's research project, but it did not affect the formal commercial projects and online business, nor did it involve other businesses such as ByteDance's large models," ByteDance continues. The company denies the claims that the intern impacted 8,000 GPUs or cost it "tens of millions of dollars," calling such reports "seriously exaggerated." ByteDance says the intern was terminated from their role back in August, and notified the intern's school about their behavior. Tuotiao itself uses AI tech like machine learning to show each user a curated feed. TikTok also uses AI on the backend for its "For You" algorithm. For ad creation, TikTok launched an AI-powered "Creative Assistant" feature earlier this year. The US has banned Huawei since 2020, with restrictions going back to 2017. The Department of Commerce recently opened an inquiry into chipmaker TSMC over whether it might be violating US export laws by working with Huawei directly -- or indirectly through Huawei shell companies.

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. See Also: Nvidia Stock Is Up Over 233% In The Past Year And Tech Bulls Say It Could Go Even Higher From Here 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. Read Next: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin On The Rise As 'Uptober' May Be Finally Here: Analysts Predict Bullish Breakout For King Crypto, ETH's Rally To $3,300 Image Via Unsplash This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Kaustubh Bagalkote Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

TikTok owner sacks intern for sabotaging AI project

TikTok-owner, ByteDance, says it has sacked an intern for "maliciously interfering" with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models. But the firm rejected reports about the extent of the damage caused by the unnamed individual, saying they "contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies". BBC News has contacted ByteDance to request further details about the incident. The Chinese technology giant's Doubao ChatGPT-like generative AI model is the country's most popular AI chatbot.

AI Sabotage at ByteDance - What Former Interns Say About Company

Complaints of a poor work-life balance aren't unique to interns and have been made by employees across the company. The Chinese Big Tech firm ByteDance has reportedly fired an intern who "maliciously interfered" with its AI training. While details of the incident are sparse, ByteDance is known to offer numerous internship opportunities across its various departments, including engineering and research. However, comments from former interns suggest the company can be a difficult workplace. ByteDance Intern Fired for Sabotaging AI According to a company statement , an intern in ByteDance's commercial technology department was dismissed in August 2024 after being caught sabotaging AI model training with malicious code. However, the firm sought to downplay the fallout from the attack, stating that it only impacted a research project while commercial operations remained unaffected. It also said online rumors that more than 8,000 GPUs were involved and tens of millions of dollars were lost were "seriously exaggerated." ByteDance's internship programs are highly competitive, attracting students and graduates from prestigious institutions. However, many interns have reported experiencing heavy workloads and long hours. Interns Highlight Long Hours and Poor Work-Life Balance Although ByteDance interns have generally posted positive reviews of the company on Glassdoor, giving the company an average of 4.5/5 stars, many reported working long hours and complained of a poor work-life balance. One intern at ByteDance's Beijing office described the "terrible work-life balance." Another said the company culture is to work overtime. On the positive side, ByteDance interns generally praised the opportunities offered. Many also said they enjoyed the challenge of working with cutting-edge technology. Is ByteDance a Toxic Workplace? While ByteDance's former interns appear to hold a generally favorable view of the company, the same complaints of long hours and bad work-life balance can be found across its workforce, and some employees are fed up. In a post on the anonymous employee forum Blind, a ByteDance software engineer lamented the company's "toxic culture." Echoing similar complaints on Glassdoor, they raised concerns about staff burnout and criticized the company's stance on remote work. "The leadership is completely unconcerned about employee welfare," the post stated. "They cater to a culture that creates constant stress and a horrible [work-life balance]; they never address employee burnouts. They are very control-oriented and unempathetic towards the employees."

TikTok parent company dismisses intern who 'maliciously interfered' with its AI technology

TikTok Inc. offices in Culver City, Calif. on March 20.Bing Guan / Bloomberg via Getty Images file The parent company of TikTok says it has dismissed an intern that it found to have "maliciously interfered" with its artificial intelligence technology effort. In a statement in Chinese released Monday, the parent company, ByteDance, said the intern in question had committed a "serious violation" against its commercial technology team's "research project." In particular, the intern's actions affected ByteDance's AI training program, the company said. In the AI world, companies attempt to program an AI application by "training" it on vast amounts of data to recognize patterns, understand context, and make decisions -- in other words, "learn." It is not clear what aspect of the AI model the intern is accused of interfering with. A ByteDance spokesperson did not respond to a series of follow-up questions submitted by NBC News. TikTok's algorithm, powered in part by some artificial intelligence processes, is seen as the app's most lucrative element. And in China, ByteDance operates the country's most popular AI chatbot, Doubao, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT. ByteDance said media reports suggesting the company was on the verge of losing tens of millions of dollars as a result of the intern's actions were a "serious exaggeration," and that no commercial projects or online operations were affected. TikTok continues to rank among the most popular apps in the world. Although the U.S. passed a law earlier this year that set the stage for the app to be banned here, ByteDance has already begun legal action to challenge it. Meanwhile, both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have signaled a softer stance toward the ban effort as they campaign for president. Trump has reversed the position he took as president when he supported a ban to now say such a move would end up benefiting Facebook. Harris, meanwhile, has made ample use of TikTok during her presidential campaign, and has called for a change in ownership instead of an outright ban.