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ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, has quietly launched four new generative AI apps for users outside of China: Cici AI, ChitChop, Coze, and BagelBell.
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The apps were launched in the past three months and collectively have millions of downloads, with Cici being the most popular with over 10 million downloads on the Google Play store.
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Cici AI, ChitChop, and Coze are bot creation platforms, allowing users to create and share their chatbots, while BagelBell generates fictional stories based on readers' choices.
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These apps rely on OpenAI's GPT technology, accessed through a Microsoft Azure license, not on ByteDance's own language models.
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The websites and terms of service for these apps do not mention ByteDance as the creator, and ownership is revealed here for the first time.
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Three of the apps are run by Spring (SG) Pte. Ltd., a new ByteDance subsidiary, and the fourth is run by Poligon Pte., another ByteDance subsidiary known for publishing erotic web novels and video games.
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Only Coze is currently available in the U.S., and none are available in the EU, indicating they are still in the testing phase.
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In test conversations, Coze and ChitChop provided descriptions of topics subject to Chinese government censorship, while BagelBell, being a fictional story generator, was not tested for historical knowledge.
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ByteDance's move into generative AI apps in western markets may attract scrutiny from regulators concerned about privacy and potential influence by the Chinese government.