ByteDance Accepts AI Gap, Sticks With In-House Models

ByteDance Ltd. is prepared to sacrifice its short-term standing in the global AI model race to build a stronger technological foundation, Chief Executive Liang Rubo told employees at a companywide meeting.

Liang said on Thursday ByteDance’s Doubao consumer AI app remained competitive and its Seedance video-generation model was at the technological frontier, but the company’s large-language models had fallen further behind leading overseas models, according to people familiar with the meeting.