ByteDance, owner of TikTok, fired the intern who sabotaged the artificial intelligence project

A ByteDance intern in China was fired after TikTok’s owner noticed. Sabotaged the training of one of the artificial intelligence models developed by the company. The case was due to take place in August but was announced this Monday (21).

Chinese giant confirms student dismissal Claims about the incident began to emerge on social mediathroughout the weekend. The case has gained even more coverage due to growing concerns about the security of artificial intelligence tools.

The company responsible for the popular short video application said in a statement that his former collaborator AI model for a research project acted ‘malicious’ by interfering with training tasks. Therefore, he decided to fire the contractor, claiming that he had committed serious disciplinary violations.

The intern fired by ByteDance was part of the technology team linked to the commercial departmentHowever, the brand had no experience with the artificial intelligence laboratory. The company announced that it informed the university where it studied about the incident and warned industry organizations.

The best AI models are not affected

Rumors on social media suggested that the intern’s sabotage affected at least 8,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) used in AI training. Besides, It was estimated that TikTok’s owner suffered losses in the tens of millions of dollars due to the malicious action.

However, ByteDance denied these allegationsHe said the data published on social media “contained some exaggerations and inaccuracies.” The company also accused the student of disclosing false information on his online resume.

Regarding rumors that the main AI models were affected by the intern’s intervention, Chinese big tech says none of its main AI tools are affected. The same goes for the company’s commercial projects and online business.