BEIJING — China’s ByteDance is suing a former intern for $1.1 million, alleging he deliberately attacked its artificial intelligence large language model training infrastructure, a case that has drawn widespread attention within China amid a heated AI race.
The parent company of TikTok is seeking 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages from the former intern, Tian Keyu, in a lawsuit filed with the Haidian District People’s Court in Beijing, the state-owned Legal Weekly reported this week.
While lawsuits between companies and employees are common in China, legal action against an intern and for such a large sum is unusual.
Tian is alleged to have deliberately sabotaged the team’s model training tasks through code manipulation and unauthorized modifications, according to Legal Weekly, which cited an internal ByteDance memo.
In a social media post in October, ByteDance said it had dismissed the intern in August.
Persons:
ByteDance, Tian Keyu, Tian
Organizations:
BEIJING, People’s Court, Peking University
Locations:
China, TikTok, People’s, Beijing