The effort by the Chinese tech giant could close the gap with AI labs in the United States in the coming years, the report said.
ByteDance Co-Founder Zhang Yiming told the company’s AI team about the plan at a meeting, the report said, citing unnamed sources. He said ByteDance can compete with Anthropic and OpenAI, although he believes this will take at least until 2029 or 2030.
The new AI agent will serve a similar function to Muse, which Meta debuted in September, the report said, adding that Muse has been a success for its creator. Meta has begun adding Muse to hardware products such as its smart glasses and an upcoming Muse Charm device just for the agent.
It is not clear if ByteDance also has plans for hardware pairings, according to the report.
Zhang’s focus is on data, the report said. ByteDance’s Seed AI models are pre-trained on datasets smaller than those used by the company’s frontier competitors.
Meanwhile, Muse has become “a new centerpiece” for Meta’s AI ambitions, PYMNTS reported Oct. 21. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg used the company’s third-quarter earnings call to offer the assistant as evidence that its strategy is working. More than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada set up Muse in the six weeks after its launch, with around 25% using it daily.
The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Giving AI Credit: How Far Consumers Will Let Agents Go” found in October that there is a limit to what consumers will let AI agents do for them. While 63% of consumers are willing to let an AI agent help with credit by comparing offers, only 49% would let the agent complete and submit an application.
“Consumers also want the agent to explain itself,” the report said, adding that 79% said it is very important or essential that an AI agent clarify, in plain language, why it chose a particular offer or action.
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