ByteDance, owner of TikTok, said it had fired an intern for “malicious interference” with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.
But the company rejected reports about the extent of the damage caused by the anonymous individual, saying they “contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies.”
BBC News has contacted ByteDance to request more details about the incident.
The Chinese tech giant's Doubao ChatGPT-like generative AI model is the country's most popular AI chatbot.
“The individual was an intern on the go-to-market technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab,” ByteDance said in a statement.
“Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies.”
Its online business operations, including its large language AI models, were not affected by the intern's actions, the company added.
ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused more than $10 million in damage by disrupting an AI training system made up of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPUs).
In addition to firing the person in August, ByteDance said it informed the intern's university and industry bodies of the incident.
The social media giant has invested heavily in AI technology, which it uses to power not only its Doubao chatbot, but also many other applications, including a text-to-video conversion tool called Jimeng.
