ByteDance founder warns employees against AI distillation: Report

ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has urged the Chinese internet giant’s staff to avoid using AI distillation aimed at training and improving artificial intelligence models.

As reported by China's state-backed outlet The Paper on Thursday, Yiming told them not to rely on the activity of distilling tech rival systems even at the expense of some short-term gains.

Zhang emphasized that true AI developments demands “long-termism and delayed gratification" rather than focusing on short-term leaderboard rankings derived from others' outputs, as reported by the sources familiar to the matter.

He also advised ByteDance’s Seed AI research team to not sacrifice long-term strategic goals just for the sake of immediate and short-term benefits as the practice of AI distillation stifles innovative and long-term technological breakthroughs.

Given the competitive landscape in China, Chinese AI developers are engaged in fierce competition to release models that are both cheaper and more powerful.

In recent weeks, the issue of AI distillation has emerged as a major flashpoint between the United States and China. For instance, when a Chinese AI startup Moonshot unveiled Kimi K3, it sent shockwaves across Silicon Valley due to its unprecedented capabilities.

Later the US accused a Chinese startup of distilling Anthropic Fable technology to build the model. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Chinese firms could face financial sanctions or trade blacklists

However, Beijing denied such accusations. In return, The Chinese government accused Washington of "AI hegemonism" and threatened to retaliate with countermeasures.