
OpenAI suspends ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, access to ChatGPT technology, after revelations of alleged misuse. This sanction strengthens the China/United States technological rivalry in the strategic AI sector.
ByteDance suspected of quietly reproducing ChatGPT AI
The parent company of the social network TikTok is banned from accessing the American company’s language models, suspected of violating the conditions of use.
According to revelations from the specialized media The Verge on December 15, ByteDance would have discreetly exploited the ChatGPT programming interface this year to feed and test its own generative AI models. Stated objective: very quickly offer an alternative to ChatGPT and beat OpenAI.
If ByteDance acknowledges having carried out an “experimental project” in this sense, the Chinese company assures that it put an end to this practice in April to comply with OpenAI’s conditions of use.
For its part, OpenAI certainly mentions “minimal” use of its platform on the part of ByteDance. But the American company opted for firmness by temporarily suspending access to the Chinese giant, while it conducts a thorough investigation into this matter.
“ Although ByteDance’s use of our API is minimal, we have suspended their account while we conduct a thorough investigation. If we discover that their use violates our terms of service, we will ask them to make the necessary changes or we will permanently delete their account », Said OpenAI in a press release sent to The Verge. »
An already tense context between China and the United States
This controversy comes at the worst time for ByteDance. In addition to the alleged non-compliance with ChatGPT’s terms of use, TikTok, ByteDance’s flagship application, is already the subject of intense pressure from Western countries such as the United States. The latter suspect the social network of clandestinely transferring sensitive data to the Chinese authorities.
By this suspension, OpenAI clearly intends to indicate its intransigence. The American company could go so far as to permanently block access to its technology if the internal investigation establishes new violations of its conditions of use.
Beyond the contractual aspect, this temporary blockage above all delivers a political message to China that the development of AI cannot escape American control. It remains to be seen whether this technical ban does not also hide more geopolitical aims. To be continued….
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