“TikTok Owner ByteDance Quietly Launched 4 Generative AI Apps Powered By OpenAI’s GPT”, 2014-01-17 ():
TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has quietly launched 4 new generative AI apps for users outside of China, Forbes has learned. Dubbed Cici AI, Coze, ChitChop, and BagelBell, the apps were all launched in the past 3 months and collectively have millions of downloads.
Cici AI, ChitChop, and Coze are bot creation platforms that let users make and share their own chatbots. BagelBell generates the plot and text of fictional stories that change based on readers’ choices. But ByteDance did not build the underlying large language models that power them. Instead, the apps rely on OpenAI’s GPT technology, accessed through a Microsoft Azure license, according to ByteDance spokesperson Jodi Seth.
On the new apps’ websites and in their terms of service, there is no mention of ByteDance, whose ownership is being reported here for the first time
…Cici and ChitChop are largely focused on entertainment, offering bots based on fictional characters and romantic companions, while Coze provides bots intended to simplify workplace tasks. Cici is the most popular of the apps so far, with more than 10 million downloads, according to the Google Play store…ByteDance has a history of liberally launching test apps, then sunsetting any that don’t stick. Before it debuted TikTok in the US the company launched (and eventually deprecated) a trivia app, a funny gif app and a news aggregator app. Its offerings across the world continue to grow and change; current offerings include a WhatsApp competitor in Africa, a Spotify competitor in Southeast Asia, and a Twitter competitor that was recently discontinued in Brazil.
While these 4 generative AI apps are focused on the Beijing company’s international markets, ByteDance has also launched generative AI apps in China, starting with the AI chatbot app Dou Bao. The app launched in August, after ByteDance received approval from the government. Chinese regulations require that bots launched in China “adhere to the core socialist values” of the Chinese state—which often means following government censorship guidelines.
…In test conversations, Coze and ChitChop gave serviceable descriptions of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and other topics subject to Chinese government censorship, though both bots struggled with (non-ideological) hallucination. Because BagelBell creates fictional stories, we did not test its historical knowledge, but we did ask it to create a story about Xi Jinping frolicking in fields of flowers with Winnie the Pooh. It obliged. When Forbes tried to create an account to test Cici, which is designed to look exactly like DouBao, the app repeatedly erred. Accordingly, we were unable to engage with it.
Regulators have also raised concerns about the Chinese government using AI to steal intellectual property from foreign companies. In December, The Verge reported that ByteDance had been using OpenAI’s large language models to create a competing model of its own—a clear violation of OpenAI’s terms of service. OpenAI subsequently suspended ByteDance’s access to its API.
ByteDance spokesperson Seth said that ByteDance is using OpenAI through a license for Microsoft Azure, which gives it access to GPT. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment by press time.