TikTok Parent ByteDance AI Research Head to Leave as Pressure Mounts on Video-Sharing App

ByteDance AI head Ma Wei-Ying’s departure comes amid US scrutiny over TikTok’s security and privacy issues.

By Reuters | Updated: 28 July 2020 14:32 IST

Ma did not immediately respond to a request to comment

Highlights

Ma Wei-Ying joined ByteDance from Microsoft
He acted as the vice president and head of the AI lab while at ByteDance
Ma will leave ByteDance this week

Beijing-based ByteDance said on Tuesday the head of its artificial intelligence lab will leave the company, as its short-video app TikTok faces US scrutiny over security and privacy issues.

Ma Wei-Ying joined ByteDance from Microsoft to become a vice president and head of the AI lab in 2017.

His departure comes as TikTok faces regulatory challenges across the globe, and a potential ban by the US government over suspicions Beijing could force its Chinese owner to turn over user data.

US Senate Panel Approves Ban on Using TikTok App on Government Devices

“We are extremely grateful to Wei-Ying for his important contribution to ByteDance,” a ByteDance spokeswoman said.

Ma will leave ByteDance this week, according to a person familiar with the matter. It is unclear who would replace him.

Ma did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

TikTok Faces Scrutiny From EU Watchdogs

Trained in Taiwan and the United States, Ma was assistant managing director of Microsoft Research Asia before taking the post at ByteDance, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Technology news website The Information first reported Ma's departure and said he planed to take a position at China's Tsinghua University.

Reuters has reported that ByteDance is expanding its engineering and research team in Mountain View, California, and had hired more than 150 engineers there.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

Is Redmi Note 9 the perfect successor to Redmi Note 8? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.