ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo reportedly warned employees about AI (Artificial Intelligence) disruption. According to a report in Reuters, at a company-wide all-hands meeting this week the CEO of TikTok owner warned employees about risks becoming complacent and slipping into mediocrity as it faces challenges from newer startups. ByteDance shared a post about the meeting on social media.
The meeting was held in Singapore and watched by ByteDance employees worldwide.Liang said at the meeting that the company’s rapid expansion in recent years had made it less efficient, and it had not paid enough attention to artificial intelligence technology.
“Our company is not sensitive enough (to new technologies),” Liang said. “For example, discussions about GPT did not appear in our half-year tech review until 2023, although GPT-1 was already released in 2018.” For those unaware, GPT refers to a machine learning technique that has given OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot human-like accuracy.
Highlighting ByteDance’ late start on AI foundation models, Liang said that the companies with better models created them between 2018 and 2021. “For many good startup teams, they are very familiar with the industry. They can quickly spot any new projects appearing on GitHub, and then they start seeking acquisition or partnership opportunities,” he said, referring to the online depository for computer codes.
Liang added that ByteDance was suffering from too much internal red tape as the company expanded. He reportedly said that the company is now taking six months to work on projects that a startup could complete in one month.
World’s app factory needs to rush
ByteDance is often seen as the world’s leading company on algorithms because its flagship apps such as TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao are powered by commanding recommendation engines. Nicknamed “App Factory” due to its frequent releases of mobile applications, Bytedance has been slow to the AI race that is disrupting the technology sector.
Liang is not the first CEO to warn employees about AI. Other Chinese tech tycoons ranging from JD.com founder Richard Liu to Tencent Chairman Pony Ma are also now calling on their companies to be more efficient and refrain from becoming complacent.
The company recently increased its focus on AI while pulling the plug on some businesses such as video games. TikTok parent has been testing a number of AI-powered chatbots such as “Doubao” in China and “Cici” and “ChitChop” overseas.
Competition at home is led by Baidu, which has declared its chatbot is as good as OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4. Baidu’s Ernie Bot is said to have 100 million-plus users since its public rollout in August 2023.
The meeting was held in Singapore and watched by ByteDance employees worldwide.Liang said at the meeting that the company’s rapid expansion in recent years had made it less efficient, and it had not paid enough attention to artificial intelligence technology.
“Our company is not sensitive enough (to new technologies),” Liang said. “For example, discussions about GPT did not appear in our half-year tech review until 2023, although GPT-1 was already released in 2018.” For those unaware, GPT refers to a machine learning technique that has given OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot human-like accuracy.
Highlighting ByteDance’ late start on AI foundation models, Liang said that the companies with better models created them between 2018 and 2021. “For many good startup teams, they are very familiar with the industry. They can quickly spot any new projects appearing on GitHub, and then they start seeking acquisition or partnership opportunities,” he said, referring to the online depository for computer codes.
Liang added that ByteDance was suffering from too much internal red tape as the company expanded. He reportedly said that the company is now taking six months to work on projects that a startup could complete in one month.
World’s app factory needs to rush
ByteDance is often seen as the world’s leading company on algorithms because its flagship apps such as TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao are powered by commanding recommendation engines. Nicknamed “App Factory” due to its frequent releases of mobile applications, Bytedance has been slow to the AI race that is disrupting the technology sector.
Liang is not the first CEO to warn employees about AI. Other Chinese tech tycoons ranging from JD.com founder Richard Liu to Tencent Chairman Pony Ma are also now calling on their companies to be more efficient and refrain from becoming complacent.
The company recently increased its focus on AI while pulling the plug on some businesses such as video games. TikTok parent has been testing a number of AI-powered chatbots such as “Doubao” in China and “Cici” and “ChitChop” overseas.
Competition at home is led by Baidu, which has declared its chatbot is as good as OpenAI’s advanced GPT-4. Baidu’s Ernie Bot is said to have 100 million-plus users since its public rollout in August 2023.