ByteDance Ltd. is testing an AI chatbot among employees, joining Chinese rivals like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Baidu Inc. in a race to develop a local equivalent of ChatGPT.
The project known as Grace has been given a codename by the owner of TikTok, as stated by a spokesperson from ByteDance. However, no further details were disclosed.
ByteDance Entry into Generative AI
Employees using the service will encounter a pop-up message indicating that it is based on several large language models, as revealed by an anonymous tester involved in an internal project.
This enigmatic chatbot serves as the initial official sign of ByteDance’s foray into the emerging field of generative AI, which gained momentum following the successful demonstration of its potential by OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November.
ByteDance, the Chinese company that also operates the domestic video service Douyin, has been developing smartphone applications employing AI algorithmic recommendations for over a decade since its establishment by Zhang Yiming and Liang Rubo.
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Global Experimentation
China’s internet industry is actively pursuing investments in artificial intelligence. Baidu, the leading search provider, introduced Ernie Bot in March, which triggered competition among companies like Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd., and SenseTime Group Inc. to launch their own competing platforms in response to ChatGPT.
Reports from Chinese local media suggest that ByteDance is in the process of creating its own extensive language models; however, the company has not officially confirmed these reports.
These companies are all competing fiercely to establish their dominance in the profitable domestic market, potentially without the presence of ChatGPT and Western equivalents such as Google’s Bard.
China’s primary internet regulator has announced that it will require a security review of generative AI tools before they can be deployed.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech firms have faced challenges due to US sanctions, which have limited their access to the best chips for training their AI models.
On a global scale, TikTok is also conducting experiments with a chatbot named Tako. Currently, it appears as an instant messenger within TikTok’s primary platform, allowing users to ask questions.
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