ByteDance Expands US AI Team Amid Layoffs
While many tech firms are cutting staff, TikTok's parent company ByteDance is hiring for nearly 100 AI-related roles in the United States. The move is part of a broader strategy to build out its American AI team as the company faces ongoing regulatory scrutiny and seeks to localize key technical operations.
- The hiring is for ByteDance's core AI division, known as Seed, which was established in 2023 and operates labs in the U.S., Singapore, and China. - Open roles are concentrated in key U.S. tech hubs, including San Jose, Los Angeles, and Seattle. The positions focus on advanced applications like building science models for drug discovery and researching "human-like" AI development, in addition to work on large language models. - Beyond TikTok, ByteDance operates a suite of AI products in China, including the popular AI chatbot app Doubao and generative models for video (Seedance 2.0) and images (Seedream 5.0). - This expansion comes shortly after the company's AI video model, Seedance 2.0, drew criticism from Hollywood studios like Disney and Paramount for alleged use of copyrighted works without authorization. - The AI hiring contrasts with recent job cuts in other ByteDance divisions, including layoffs in its global e-commerce unit, TikTok Shop, in late 2025 and early 2026. - This strategic move follows the finalization of a deal to place TikTok's U.S. operations into a new, majority American-owned joint venture, a step taken to mitigate long-standing national security concerns raised by the U.S. government.
