TikTok Revealed to Be a Big Customer of Microsoft’s AI Cloud, What Can It Do?
Morrissey Technology – It was revealed that TikTok is one of the largest consumers of AI Cloud Computing managed by Microsoft. What can video-based social media do with AI? Quoting from The Verge, TikTok paid at least US$20 million (Rp. 322.77 billion) per month to Microsoft to access the OpenAI model last March. That amount is almost equivalent to a quarter of Microsoft’s Cloud division’s revenue. Microsoft’s AI cloud business, according to The Information, is currently achieving annual revenue of around US$1 billion (Rp. 16.14 trillion). Microsoft is also investing multibillion US dollars to make OpenAI its proprietary cloud, and has also poured hundreds of billions of dollars into building the supercomputer that powers ChatGPT.
On the one hand, a study reports that TikTok may not need Microsoft’s cloud AI capabilities if it develops its own Large Language Model (LLM). Last year, the company that houses TikTok, ByteDance, secretly used OpenAI technology to create its own LLM. That practice is generally considered reckless in the world of AI. It is also a direct violation of OpenAI’s terms of service, which state that its model output cannot be used ‘to develop any artificial intelligence models that compete with our products and services’. Microsoft, from which ByteDance buys its OpenAI access, has a similar policy.
Following the report, OpenAI suspended ByteDance’s account to investigate potential violations of its developer license. At the time, ByteDance said it was using the technology ‘to a very limited extent’ to help build its own language models.
AI search feature on TikTok
In May, TikTok was reportedly testing an AI Search Highlights feature on its search page. Quoting The Verge, this AI-based feature will summarize the contents of various videos and highlight them. On the AI disbursement highlights feature page, TikTok explains that its material is supported by ChatGPT made by OpenAI. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the AI search results, TikTok will display videos that the algorithm system considers relevant.
Al Smart Search TikTok provides ChatGPT answers to search queries. TikTok is ultimately trying to capitalize on some of the habits its users – especially the younger generation – have developed on the app. Many young TikTokers treat TikTok like a search engine, choosing to look for restaurant or product recommendations on the app rather than using platforms like Google Search. And like Google, TikTok now seems to be leaning towards AI results by incorporating content from top content creators.