Former intern accused of sabotaging AI project sued for $1.1 million by TikTok owner

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is suing a former intern for $1.1 million for allegedly attacking its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure. The intern, Tian Keyu, is accused of sabotaging the team’s model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications. This case has garnered attention in China due to its focus on AI LLM training, a technology that has global interest in generative AI. ByteDance has filed the lawsuit seeking damages with the Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing. While lawsuits between companies and employees are common in China, legal action against an intern and for such a large sum is unusual. ByteDance did not comment on the lawsuit, and Tian, who is identified as a postgraduate student at Peking University, has not responded to messages. The company stated in a social media post that the intern was dismissed in August and that rumors about the case causing millions of dollars in losses and involving over 8,000 graphics processing units were exaggerated. This case highlights the importance of protecting AI technology in the competitive environment of rapid technological advances in the field.

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