Chinese tech giant ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is suing a former intern for allegedly sabotaging its artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company is seeking damages of 8 million yuan ($1.1 million), a huge amount for a case involving an intern. The Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing has accepted the lawsuit, highlighting the rising stakes in China’s AI race.
An intern, Tian Keyu, was fired in August 2023 on suspicion of having tampered with the code relating to the large language model (LLM) training project by ByteDance. ByteDance claims that the acts by Tian caused huge disruptions and a great deal of resources were wasted. However, the company has denied rumors of huge financial losses involving thousands of GPUs, labeling such rumors “seriously exaggerated.”
ByteDance accused Tian of “malicious interference” with its AI model training, saying he had unauthorizedly manipulated the code to sabotage the project. It added that his actions destroyed a critical research project and wasted valuable resources. The company reported Tian’s conduct to professional ethics organizations, including the Trust and Integrity Enterprise Alliance, and informed Tian’s university. However, Tian has always denied these allegations.
The case has drawn attention not only because of the massive damages involved but also due to the increasing importance of AI technology. The lawsuit by ByteDance is seen as an attempt to safeguard its investments in advanced AI projects, which are part of its business strategy.
The high-profile legal battle comes as ByteDance aggressively pushes into AI development, with its Doubao Chatbot launched in August of 2023 quickly becoming the leading AI chatbot in China by October—with 51 million monthly active users—outranking its competitors like Baidu’s Wenxiaoyan and Alibaba-backed Kimi.
This is a big case, as ByteDance steps up its focus on generative AI and shows the challenges of safeguarding intellectual property and internal security in a very competitive industry. The outcome could have far-reaching implications in how tech companies handle future internal breaches and protect their innovations.
