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TikTok owner ByteDance has filed a lawsuit seeking damages of $1.1 million against a former intern it has accused of sabotaging an AI training project, according to local media reports.
The lawsuit, filed in a Beijing district court, reportedly centers on claims that Tian Keyu, the ex-intern, deliberately tampered with code for the company's AI model training tasks.
ByteDance referenced the case in an internal disciplinary notice this month, The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
Multiple Chinese media outlets reported this week that ByteDance is seeking 8 million yuan, about $1.1 million, and a public apology.
Last month, ByteDance told the BBC in a statement that it fired Tian in August and that he was an intern in the technology team but did not work in its AI lab. The company added that his social media profile contained inaccuracies. Tian's LinkedIn profile states that he has been a research intern at ByteDance's VC team and AI lab since 2021.
The tech giant also said in its statement last month that reports of the former intern causing damage to about 8,000 specialist chips, called GPUs, and racking up losses amounting to millions of dollars were exaggerated.
ByteDance operates China's most popular chatbot, Doubao, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT.
ByteDance and Tian didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours.
In the US, ByteDance faces a January 19 deadline to divest its TikTok stake to an approved buyer or shut down after Congress passed a law in April.
The US government claims it is a national security threat and officials have been concerned about its growing influence in the country. Some government officials are worried ByteDance could hand over sensitive data on its US users to the Chinese Communist Party.
However, President-elect Donald Trump has said he would try to save the app once in office.
