ByteDance Sues Former Intern for $1.1 Million Over Alleged AI Project Sabotage

TikTok owner ByteDance sues intern for $1.1 million in damages for 'sabotaging' AI project

The former TikTok intern is in big trouble with ByteDance. Credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images TikTok parent company ByteDance is going after a former intern for allegedly sabotaging an AI training project. According to The South China Morning Post, ByteDance is seeking 8 million yuan (about $1.1 million) in damages and a public apology from ex-intern Tian Keyu. The case, which has already been accepted by Haidian District Court in Beijing, centers around accusations of Tian tampering with code related to an AI training project. ByteDance also owns AI chatbot Doubao, which is the company's answer to OpenAI's ChatGPT. Tian was fired in August because he "maliciously interfered with the model training tasks," according to a statement from ByteDance. In the same statement, ByteDance disputes rumors that the tampering involved 8,000 GPU cards and lost the company tens of millions of dollars, saying those claims are "seriously exaggerated." The company also said Tian claimed to be a part of the AI Lab, but he was really part of a separate commercial technology team. ByteDance has been busy with its AI-focused projects. It has introduced several features for TikTok including, AI-generated digital avatars and AI tools for advertising. It also reportedly has a powerful web crawler called Bytespider that's gobbling up content on the internet for LLM training. Meanwhile, the TikTok ban deadline is coming up in January, making its future in the U.S. uncertain. That said, President-elect Donald Trump, who is now on TikTok, said he wants to overturn the ban.

TikTok owner seeks $1.1 million from former intern accused of sabotaging AI project

BEIJING -- China's ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million, alleging he deliberately attacked its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure, a case that has drawn widespread attention within China amid a heated AI race. The parent company of TikTok is seeking 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages from the former intern, Tian Keyu, in a lawsuit filed with the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing, the state-owned Legal Weekly reported this week. While lawsuits between companies and employees are common in China, legal action against an intern and for such a large sum is unusual. The case has drawn attention due to its focus on AI LLM training, a technology that has captured global interest amid rapid technological advances in so-called generative AI, used to produce text, images or other output from large bodies of data. ByteDance declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday. Tian, whom other Chinese media outlets have identified as a postgraduate student at Peking University, did not immediately respond to emailed messages. Tian is alleged to have deliberately sabotaged the team's model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications, according to Legal Weekly, which cited an internal ByteDance memo. In a social media post in October, ByteDance said it had dismissed the intern in August. It said that, while there were rumors that the case had cost ByteDance losses in millions of dollars and involving over 8,000 graphics processing units, these were "seriously exaggerated."

ByteDance Seeks $1.1 Million Damages From Intern in AI Breach Case, Report Says

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million, alleging he deliberately attacked its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure, a case that has drawn widespread attention within China amid a heated AI race. The parent company of TikTok is seeking 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages from the former intern, Tian Keyu, in a lawsuit filed with the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing, the state-owned Legal Weekly reported this week. While lawsuits between companies and employees are common in China, legal action against an intern and for such a large sum is unusual. The case has drawn attention due to its focus on AI LLM training, a technology that has captured global interest amid rapid technological advances in so-called generative AI, used to produce text, images or other output from large bodies of data. ByteDance declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday. Tian, whom other Chinese media outlets have identified as a postgraduate student at Peking University, did not immediately respond to emailed messages. Tian is alleged to have deliberately sabotaged the team's model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications, according to Legal Weekly, which cited an internal ByteDance memo. In a social media post in October, ByteDance said it had dismissed the intern in August. It said that, while there were rumors that the case had cost ByteDance losses in millions of dollars and involving over 8,000 graphics processing units, these were "seriously exaggerated." (Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

ByteDance seeks $1.1 mln damages from intern in AI breach case, report says

BEIJING, Nov 28 (Reuters) - China's ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million, alleging he deliberately attacked its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure, a case that has drawn widespread attention within China amid a heated AI race. The parent company of TikTok is seeking 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages from the former intern, Tian Keyu, in a lawsuit filed with the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing, the state-owned Legal Weekly reported this week. While lawsuits between companies and employees are common in China, legal action against an intern and for such a large sum is unusual. The case has drawn attention due to its focus on AI LLM training, a technology that has captured global interest amid rapid technological advances in so-called generative AI, used to produce text, images or other output from large bodies of data. ByteDance declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday. Tian, whom other Chinese media outlets have identified as a postgraduate student at Peking University, did not immediately respond to emailed messages. Tian is alleged to have deliberately sabotaged the team's model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications, according to Legal Weekly, which cited an internal ByteDance memo. In a social media post in October, ByteDance said it had dismissed the intern in August. It said that, while there were rumors that the case had cost ByteDance losses in millions of dollars and involving over 8,000 graphics processing units, these were "seriously exaggerated." Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kevin Liffey Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Boards, Policy & RegulationBoards, Policy & Regulation