Former intern accused of sabotaging AI project on TikTok must pay $1.1 million to owner

China’s ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million for allegedly attacking its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure. The parent company of TikTok is seeking damages from the former intern, Tian Keyu, in a lawsuit filed with the Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing. This case has attracted widespread attention in China due to its focus on AI technology, specifically large language model training. This technology has garnered global interest amid rapid technological advancements in generative AI. ByteDance has accused Tian of deliberately sabotaging the team’s model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications. The intern was dismissed in August, and while there were rumors that the case had cost ByteDance millions of dollars and involved over 8,000 graphics processing units, the company has stated that these claims are exaggerated. Legal action against an intern for such a large sum is unusual in China, where lawsuits between companies and employees are common. ByteDance declined to comment on the lawsuit, and Tian, identified as a postgraduate student at Peking University, has not responded to inquiries from the media.

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