TikTok owner ByteDance said it fired an intern for “malicious interference” in the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
But the company dismissed reports of the extent of damage caused by the unnamed individual, saying they “contained some exaggeration and were inaccurate”.
BBC News has contacted ByteDance to request further details about the incident.
The Chinese tech giant’s Doubao ChatGPT-like synthetic AI model is the most popular AI chatbot in the country.
“This individual is an intern on the commercialization technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab,” ByteDance said in a statement.
“Their social media profiles and some media reports contain inaccurate information.”
The company added that its online commerce operations, including large language AI models, were not affected by the intern’s actions.
ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused more than $10 million in damages by disrupting an AI training system consisting of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs).
In addition to firing the person in August, ByteDance said it had notified the intern’s university and industry body about the incident.
ByteDance operates some of the world’s most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese equivalent Douyin.
It is considered by many to be a leader in algorithm development due to how attractive the app is to users.
Like many of its peers in China and around the world, the social media giant is investing heavily in AI.
It uses this technology to power the Doubao chatbot as well as many other applications, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng.
