TikTok parent company dismisses intern who 'maliciously interfered' with its AI technology

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The parent company of TikTok says it has dismissed an intern that it found to have "maliciously interfered" with its artificial intelligence technology effort.

In a statement in Chinese released Monday, the parent company, ByteDance, said the intern in question had committed a "serious violation" against its commercial technology team's "research project."

In particular, the intern's actions affected ByteDance's AI training program, the company said. In the AI world, companies attempt to program an AI application by "training" it on vast amounts of data to recognize patterns, understand context, and make decisions — in other words, "learn."

It is not clear what aspect of the AI model the intern is accused of interfering with. A ByteDance spokesperson did not respond to a series of follow-up questions submitted by NBC News.

TikTok’s algorithm, powered in part by some artificial intelligence processes, is seen as the app's most lucrative element. And in China, ByteDance operates the country's most popular AI chatbot, Doubao, which is similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT.

ByteDance said media reports suggesting the company was on the verge of losing tens of millions of dollars as a result of the intern's actions were a "serious exaggeration," and that no commercial projects or online operations were affected.

TikTok continues to rank among the most popular apps in the world. Although the U.S. passed a law earlier this year that set the stage for the app to be banned here, ByteDance has already begun legal action to challenge it.

Meanwhile, both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have signaled a softer stance toward the ban effort as they campaign for president.

Trump has reversed the position he took as president when he supported a ban to now say such a move would end up benefiting Facebook.

Harris, meanwhile, has made ample use of TikTok during her presidential campaign, and has called for a change in ownership instead of an outright ban.