ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok, is significantly expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) team in the United States, adding nearly 100 open positions despite ongoing scrutiny from US lawmakers and regulators. This move signals a clear intention to compete directly with established American AI companies, even as the company navigates a deal to address national security concerns surrounding TikTok.
The hiring spree focuses on ByteDance’s AI team, known as Seed, established in 2023, with labs now operating across the US, Singapore, and China. Job postings detail roles focused on critical areas like generating and processing international data for large language models, refining text, image, and video generation tools, and conducting research into creating more human-like AI. Beyond core AI development, the company is also seeking talent to apply AI to drug discovery and design, building scientific models to accelerate breakthroughs in those fields.
This expansion follows the recent agreement by ByteDance to sell a stake in TikTok to non-Chinese owners, a move designed to alleviate long-standing national security concerns. US officials have expressed worries that ByteDance could potentially leverage TikTok’s vast user data or its content recommendation algorithms to influence public opinion or compromise the privacy of American citizens. ByteDance has consistently denied these allegations.
While widely recognized in the US for TikTok, ByteDance is a substantial player in the AI landscape in its home market. Its chatbot, Doubao, was the most downloaded AI service of its kind in China throughout much of 2025, rivaling the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini. More recently, ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0, an AI video generation model, and Seedream 5.0, an image generation model, quickly drawing attention – and legal challenges – in the US.
The launch of Seedance, in particular, has sparked controversy. Hollywood studios, including Walt Disney Co. And Paramount Skydance Corp., have sent cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance, alleging intellectual property theft. The Motion Picture Association, representing major studios like Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, has demanded ByteDance halt “unauthorized use of U.S. Copyrighted works on a massive scale.” The concern stems from Seedance’s ability to generate realistic alternate endings to TV shows and create fabricated scenes featuring well-known actors.
ByteDance has acknowledged these concerns, stating through a spokesperson that the company “respects intellectual property rights” and is “taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
The company’s growing AI ambitions in the US are unfolding against a backdrop of increasing concern among US lawmakers about maintaining American leadership in the field of artificial intelligence. There’s a growing fear that falling behind in the AI race could hand China significant geopolitical and military advantages. Some officials also point to the uneven playing field, where Chinese AI products are accessible in the US while American AI services are often blocked in China, allowing Chinese companies to accumulate data and influence discourse without reciprocal access for their US competitors.
Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) articulated this concern in December, stating that “What’s at stake is simple: a U.S.-led future that benefits the free world, or a China-led AI order that reshapes the global system in line with their authoritarian values.” He emphasized the importance of attracting top talent, securing access to advanced semiconductors, and developing superior algorithms to win the AI race.
Aaron Bartnick, a former Biden White House tech policy official, highlighted ByteDance’s unique advantages, stating that the company “has access to vast amounts of compute, data, and capital, plus the explicit support of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]. It has all the ingredients to be an AI powerhouse, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to American policymakers or companies that It’s now emerging as one.”
The new Seed team positions are concentrated in key tech hubs: San Jose, California; Los Angeles; and Seattle, where TikTok also maintains significant offices. ByteDance is also launching the “Seed Edge Research Initiative,” focused on developing “general intelligence models” – AI systems capable of human-like learning, interaction, and problem-solving.
Beyond general AI, ByteDance is also investing heavily in applying AI to scientific research. Job listings indicate the company is actively recruiting individuals with backgrounds in biology, physics, and chemistry to develop models for breakthroughs in biology and drug discovery – areas where American AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are also making substantial investments. OpenAI recently launched “OpenAI for Healthcare,” and is exploring investments in companies utilizing its technology for drug development. Anthropic has also released specialized AI models, Claude for Life Sciences and Claude for Healthcare, specifically designed to accelerate drug discovery and development.
