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According to Reuters, ByteDance, the firm that is responsible for the social media giant TikTok, is receiving a wake-up call from its own CEO, Liang Rubo. Rubo warns against becoming complacent and settling for mediocrity in the face of rising competition and quickly emerging trends in artificial intelligence (AI).
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Mediocrity Threatens ByteDance’s Dominance
During a recent meeting that was held for the entire firm, Liang Rubo voiced his fears on the possibility of ByteDance falling into mediocrity. The company, which is situated in Beijing, has experienced exponential growth, which has resulted in inefficiencies. Liang has highlighted a key lack of sensitivity to evolving technology to explain this phenomenon.
In a noteworthy revelation, the Chief Executive Officer said that conversations regarding OpenAI’s GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) technology did not appear in ByteDance’s tech evaluations until the year 2023, despite the fact that GPT-1 had been available since 2018.
ByteDance’s Lag in the AI Race
ByteDance is coming in second place in the race for artificial intelligence, despite the fact that it is well-known for the powerful recommendation engines that it uses to power applications such as TikTok, Douyin, and Toutiao.
It was brought to Liang’s attention that the development of AI foundation models got off to a late start, with other tech giants making progress between the years 2018 and 2021. In addition, ByteDance’s ability to keep up with more agile companies was hindered by the presence of internal bureaucracy and a project timeframe that lasted for six months.
ByteDance’s Recent AI Ventures
While ByteDance is working to overcome issues within the company, it is concurrently making aggressive moves in the field of artificial intelligence.
Cici AI, Coze, ChitChop, and BagelBell are the four generative artificial intelligence apps that the company has recently released, according to Forbes. These apps are aimed at end users in countries other than China.
These applications, which have been released during the past three months, make use of OpenAI’s GPT technology by utilizing a license from Microsoft Azure. The entry of ByteDance into the field of generative artificial intelligence is in line with a larger industry trend in which tech heavyweights are competing for dominance in this rapidly developing field.
BagelBell is a platform that generates dynamic fictional stories, whereas Cici AI, ChitChop, and Coze are bot creation platforms that allow users to craft and share their own chatbots as well as other chatbots.
It is interesting to note that ByteDance did not design the big language models that are used in these applications; rather, they relied on the GPT technology that is offered by OpenAI. The apps have cumulatively garnered millions of downloads, with Cici topping the pack with over 10 million downloads on the Google Play store. However, the apps are not currently available in the European Union (EU).
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Privacy Concerns and Regulatory Scrutiny
The expansion of ByteDance’s artificial intelligence offerings has raised privacy worries. The privacy policies of the applications suggest that there may be a possibility of sharing user information within the ByteDance corporate group. This possibility raises worries over the access to data that ByteDance personnel in China may have.
According to TikTok, the company spent $1.5 billion to convince lawmakers in the United States that the video-sharing software is secure. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, workers of the app have stated that data is still occasionally shared with its parent company, which is situated in China, despite the fact that the app claims to have protected data from the United States.
ByteDance is likely to face intense regulatory scrutiny, which may provide difficulties in terms of the company’s capacity to comply with international privacy standards.
ByteDance’s entry into generative artificial intelligence is a reflection of the company’s history of releasing and testing a variety of apps before gaining a footing in the market, according to Forbes. Despite the fact that the distribution of the generative AI apps is now restricted, ByteDance’s previous methods indicate that the company may expand internationally based on the input it receives from the market.
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