TikTok owner ByteDance joins generative AI race with service for chatbot development
ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is working on an open platform that will allow users to create their own chatbots.
TikTok owner ByteDance joins generative AI race with service for chatbot development
2T2C: Talent, Technology, Capital, Cognition

TikTok owner ByteDance joins generative AI race with service for chatbot development

Photo: AFP/NurPhoto
Eurasia 19/12/2023 07:00

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is working on an open platform that will allow users to create their own chatbots, as the company races to catch up in generative artificial intelligence (AI) amid fierce competition that kicked off with last year’s launch of ChatGPT.

The “bot development platform” will be launched as a public beta by the end of the month, according to an internal memo seen by South China Morning Post. 

The move aligns with the company’s new strategic vision to “explore new generative AI products and how they can integrate with the existing ones”, the companywide notice said.

The social media giant has already been working on its own text-to-image generator similar to Midjourney, according to a person familiar with the matter.
AFP/CFOTO
China’s most valuable unicorn has been known for using some form of AI behind the scenes from day one. Its recommendation algorithms are considered the “secret sauce” behind TikTok’s success.

Now it is jumping into an emerging market for offering large language models (LLMs) as a service. Several other tech giants have done the same, including OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed start-up behind ChatGPT. Last month, it started allowing all users to make custom versions of ChatGPT for specific tasks, with no coding experience required.

The cloud unit of Baidu – the first Chinese tech giant to launch a ChatGPT rival called Ernie Bot in March – that same month rolled out Qianfan, a one-stop platform for enterprise users to develop LLMs and related services.

To date, OpenAI has still not made its services available in mainland China or Hong Kong, and other companies with similar products have followed suit, such as Google with its Bard chatbot. Microsoft, however, has been pushing its GPT-powered Copilot across Asia, including in Hong Kong.
#AI #China
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