ByteDance Sues Former Intern for $1.1 Million Over AI Project Sabotage

The tech giant alleges the intern tampered with code during large language model training, causing significant disruption to a research project.

ByteDance has filed a lawsuit against a former intern, Tian Keyu, seeking 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages for allegedly sabotaging an AI training project.
The company accuses Tian of tampering with code out of dissatisfaction with resource allocation, disrupting model training tasks for a research project within its commercial technology team.
ByteDance terminated Tian's internship in August 2024 and reported the incident to his university and professional ethics organizations in China.
The company has dismissed rumors of financial losses in the tens of millions of dollars, stating the impact was limited to the specific research project.
The case has drawn attention due to its focus on AI large language model training, a critical area in the competitive field of generative AI development.