Parent company TikTok 'uses OpenAI's technology' when creating chatbots

According to The Verge , ByteDance is developing the artificial intelligence project Project Seed, including two main products: Doubao – an AI chatbot for the Chinese market, and another AI for commercialization globally through the cloud platform. cloud. This allocation is similar to when they released short video apps Douyin and TikTok.

However, instead of using its own large language model (LLM) AI training tool, ByteDance is said to use ChatGPT ‘s application programming interface ( API ), violating regulations in the intelligence industry. artificial. Both OpenAI and Microsoft have terms that partners cannot use the ChatGPT API to build AI models that compete with their own products.

Also according to the source, ByteDance abused OpenAI tools in many stages of Project Seed development, including training and evaluating AI models. However, when needing to apply for a license to operate the Doubao chatbot in China a few months ago, ByteDance asked the research team to stop using the ChatGPT API to avoid legal trouble. “They said they need to make sure everything is legal,” said an insider from The Verge .

Responding to the issue, Jodi Seth, a representative of ByteDance, confirmed that the company used the ChatGPT API during the launch phase of Project Seed, but had completely stopped and deleted all related training data since mid-year.

“The company is licensed by Microsoft to access the ChatGPT application programming interface. In addition, ByteDance only uses this tool to support AI products in international markets. With the Doubao chatbot in China, we have self-development model,” Seth said.

Frank Shaw, a Microsoft representative, said the company is aware of the risk of violations from partners, so there are processes in place to detect misuse. “The Azure OpenAI service is in a limited access framework. This means that partners must register and wait for approval. Microsoft also sets standards for people to use API tools responsibly,” Shaw said.

On December 15, OpenAI stopped ByteDance’s accounts to conduct an investigation. If policy violations are discovered, they will request TikTok’s parent company to make necessary changes or permanently terminate the service.

According to The Verge , Project Seed started about a year ago and received priority from ByteDance leadership. The project’s goal is to create a robust AI model in minimal time. It is expected that this AI will reach 200 billion parameters by the end of 2023, surpassing the 175 billion mark of GPT-3.5, and catching up with GPT-4 in 2024. However, experts assess ByteDance’s haste. can have opposite effects.

Hoang Giang