Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, allegedly wants to go "all-in" on AI.
Bytedance is currently focusing on hiring AI personnel, improving its organizational structure, and expanding its basic research, reports the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
Bytedance has an "all-in" mentality towards AI and sees AI as a battle it "cannot afford to lose."
The company has more than 300 open positions in generative AI, including more than 100 focused on large language models (LLMs).
In the field of AI, Bytedance is best known for its TikTok recommendation algorithm, which made the platform big. However, the company was late to start researching LLMs.
After OpenAI unveiled its Sora video generator in mid-February, Bytedance said that its AI video animation tool, Boximator, which was unveiled in early February, was still in its infancy by comparison.
"It still has a big gap with leading video generation models in terms of image quality, fidelity and duration," a company representative said.
Bytedance is part of China's AI elite
Bytedance is investing heavily in AI research and has already unveiled several AI models. The company is said to be working on numerous AI products, including text-to-image and text-to-video technologies, as well as the CapCut video editing application.
One AI model presented by Bytedance in mid-January 2024 is MagicVideo-V2, which converts text to video. It outperforms other T2V systems by integrating multiple modules that work together to create high-quality videos.
Bytedance has also developed an open platform for creating chatbots, similar to OpenAI's GPTs. The platform allows users to create their own chatbots, and is part of the company's strategic vision to integrate generative AI products into existing products.
Bytedance was banned from OpenAI's ChatGPT in mid-December 2023, after it was revealed that the company had secretly used OpenAI technology to develop a competing AI model called Project Seed. Using the OpenAI API to develop AI models is in direct violation of OpenAI's terms of service.