ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant known for its popular social media platform TikTok, has sacked an intern for "maliciously interfering" with an internal AI project.The incident gained public attention after rumours spread widely on Chinese social media over the weekend, drawing public attention to the company's internal operations.But the firm denied claims about the extent of the damage caused by the intern, saying they "contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies"."The individual was an intern with the [advertising] technology team and has no experience with the AI Lab," ByteDance said in a statement."Their social media profile and some media reports contain inaccuracies."The company said it had notified the intern's university and relevant industry associations of their misconduct.The Chinese technology giant's Doubao ChatGPT-like generative AI model is the country's most popular AI chatbot.Its commercial online operations, including its large language AI models, were unaffected by the intern's actions, the company added.ByteDance also denied reports that the incident caused more than $10m (£7.7m) of damage by disrupting an AI training system made up of thousands of powerful graphics processing units (GPU).ByteDance operates some of the world's most popular social media apps, including TikTok and its Chinese-equivalent Douyin.It is widely seen as a leader when it comes to algorithm development due to how appealing its apps are to users.Like many of its peers in China and around the world, the social media giant is investing heavily in AI.It uses the technology to power its Doubao chatbot as well as many other applications, including a text-to-video tool called Jimeng. Credit: BBC