ByteDance is seeking $1.1 million in damages from a former intern who sabotaged an artificial intelligence project

ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Douyin, has filed a lawsuit against a former intern, accusing him of tampering with code and sabotaging an artificial intelligence (AI) training project, and demanding 8 million yuan ($1.1 million) in damages and a public apology, according to local media reports.

The case has already been accepted by the Haidian District Court in Beijing, Chinese media Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Wednesday.

In October, rumors circulated on Chinese social media that a ByteDance intern’s actions targeting the company’s large language model (LLM) had caused significant damage. ByteDance explained at the time that the individual had been terminated in August for “malicious interference” with a training assignment.

However, the company denied speculation that the disruption affected more than 8,000 graphics processing units and caused losses of tens of millions of dollars, calling such claims exaggerated.

This month, ByteDance included the case in an internal disciplinary notice that said an intern surnamed Tian acted out of dissatisfaction with the allocation of team resources.

The notice stated that Tian manipulated the code to disrupt training efforts on the research project model, resulting in significant waste of resources. The company said it reported Tian’s actions to two professional ethics organizations in China – the Trust and Integrity Enterprise Alliance and the Enterprise Anti-Fraud Alliance – as well as Tian University.

Despite these measures, the former intern repeatedly denied any wrongdoing during the investigation, prompting the company to take legal action, Southern Metropolis Daily reports, citing an anonymous internal source.