“ByteDance Is Secretly Using OpenAI’s Tech to Build a Competitor”, 2023-12-15 (; backlinks):
‘They really just don’t want to get caught.’ The frenzied race to win in generative AI means that even the biggest players are cutting corners…It’s also in direct violation of OpenAI’s Terms Of Service, which state that its model output can’t be used “to develop any artificial intelligence models that compete with our products and services.” Microsoft Azure, which ByteDance is buying its OpenAI access through, has the same policy. Nevertheless, internal ByteDance documents shared with me confirm that the OpenAI API has been relied on to develop its foundational LLM, codenamed Project Seed, during nearly every phase of development, including for training and evaluating the model.
Employees involved are well aware of the implications; I’ve seen conversations on Lark, ByteDance’s internal communication platform for employees, about how to “whitewash” the evidence through “data desensitization.” The misuse is so rampant that Project Seed employees regularly hit their max allowance for API access.