TikTok's parent company fires an intern who “maliciously” interfered with its AI technology

TikTok's parent company says it fired an intern who it said made “malicious interference” with its artificial intelligence efforts.

In a statement in Chinese released on Monday, parent company ByteDance said the intern in question had committed a “serious violation” of its commercial technology team's “research project.”

The intern's actions had a particular impact on ByteDance's AI training program, the company said. In the AI ​​world, companies try to program an AI application by “training” it on massive amounts of data to recognize patterns, understand relationships and make decisions – in other words, “learning”.

It is not clear which aspect of the AI ​​model the intern interfered with. A ByteDance spokesperson did not respond to a series of follow-up questions from NBC News.

TikTok's algorithm, which is partly based on artificial intelligence processes, is considered the most lucrative element of the app. And in China, ByteDance operates the country's most popular AI chatbot, Doubao, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

ByteDance said media reports suggesting the company was on the verge of losing tens of millions of dollars as a result of the intern's actions were a “severe exaggeration” and that no commercial projects or online operations were affected.

TikTok remains one of the most popular apps worldwide. Although the US passed a law earlier this year paving the way for a ban on the app here, ByteDance has already taken legal action to challenge it.

Meanwhile, both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have signaled a softer stance toward ban efforts during the presidential campaign.

Trump has reversed the position he took as president when he supported a ban and now says such a move would ultimately benefit Facebook.

Harris has used TikTok extensively during her presidential campaign and has called for a change in ownership rather than an outright ban.