In a recent company-wide meeting, ByteDance’s CEO, Liang Rubo, cautioned employees about the risk of complacency and potential slide into mediocrity in the face of challenges from emerging startups.
During a meeting in Singapore, which was observed by ByteDance employees across the globe, Liang mentioned that the company’s growth in recent years had diminished efficiency as it continued to ignore the AI trend.
“Our company is not sensitive enough to new technologies,” Liang said via Reuters. “For example, discussions about GPT did not appear in our half-year tech review until 2023, although GPT-1 was already released in 2018.”
Despite being recognized as a leader in algorithms due to apps like TikTok, Douyin, and Toutiao, ByteDance is lagging in the ongoing AI race to reshape the sector.
Shifting focus towards AI
Discussing the company’s delayed entry into AI foundation models, Liang noted that companies with superior models developed 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.
The CEO also pointed out that ByteDance faced heavy internal bureaucracy as it expanded, resulting in projects taking six months to complete, whereas a startup could accomplish them in one month.
Recently, the company has increased its focus on AI and has discontinued its plans with video games. ByteDance has been experimenting with several AI-powered chatbots, such as “Doubao” in China and “Cici” and “ChitChop” overseas.
