Social media giant owner fires intern for ‘maliciously’ interfering with AI project [Video]

TikTok parent company ByteDance has confirmed it terminated an intern over the summer for allegedly sabotaging the training of an artificial intelligence model.

The Beijing-based TikTok owner said in a social media post that it had fired an intern in August for “maliciously” interfering with the training of what it referred to as a research project, but said a report claiming that the intern’s actions cost the company “‘tens of millions of dollars’ is seriously exaggerated,” according to a translation.

ByteDance is known for its algorithm development, and the company is joining the rest of Big Tech firms worldwide in leaning further into AI as competition heats up for dominance in building and utilizing the rapidly-evolving models.

MORE THAN A DOZEN STATES AND DC FILE LAWSUITS AGAINST TIKTOK, CLAIMING PLATFORM HARMS YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH

Earlier this month, the company — which has over 10,000 employees in more than 200 cities globally — confirmed it was …