Advertisement
ByteDance adds video generator to China’s most popular AI chatbot Doubao
The move underscores the TikTok owner’s ambitions to solidify Doubao’s leading position
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Ben Jiangin Beijing
TikTok parent ByteDance is adding video-generation ability to its ChatGPT alternative Doubao, as the short-video giant doubles down on a potential blockbuster in China’s fast-growing generative artificial intelligence (AI) market.
Advertisement
The Doubao chatbot – powered by its namesake large language model (LLM), the same underlying technology behind ChatGPT – has started testing a new video function that is able to convert text or images into lifelike video clips, thanks to its “outstanding semantic understanding capability”, according to the app’s introduction.
Currently available to a select group of early adopters, the feature supports advanced camera movements and various artistic styles, the description said.
The move underscores ByteDance’s ambitions to solidify Doubao’s leading market position. The service was ranked the most popular AI app in China last month by Aicpb.com, a website that tracks the popularity of AI products worldwide. It was a win for the firm, which was relatively late in building LLMs despite its early embrace of AI in content recommendation.
ByteDance scrambled to boost its generative AI earlier this year after CEO Liang Rubo berated employees for being too slow to react to the emergence of new technologies. Company veteran Kelly Zhang Nan in February relinquished her role as the CEO of TikTok’s Chinese sibling Douyin to devote more time to video-editing app CapCut, saying that “AI technology will substantially disrupt content creation”.
Advertisement
Advertisement