ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has told the Chinese internet giant's staff to avoid improving its AI models by distilling rival systems, even at the expense of some short-term gains, China's state-backed outlet The Paper reported on Thursday.
Known as model distillation, the method uses the outputs of a powerful AI system to train or improve a smaller model and has become a flashpoint in an intensifying tech race between China and the United States.
- Zhang told a recent internal ByteDance meeting that AI development requires "long-termism and delayed gratification, rather than using others' output to achieve short-term leaderboard rankings," The Paper said, citing sources within the company.
- ByteDance should be willing to "sacrifice some short-term gains for long-term goals," Zhang told the company's Seed AI research team, according to the report.
Zhang says AI distillation interferes with genuine long-term technological breakthroughs, The Paper said. - There's fierce competition among Chinese developers to push out cheaper and more powerful AI models.
- Washington and leading US AI firms have accused Chinese rivals of using the distillation technique to extract capabilities from proprietary models.
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Chinese companies could face financial sanctions or placement on US trade blacklists, while Beijing accused Washington of "AI hegemonism" and threatened countermeasures.
Reuters
