ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, is reportedly developing an artificial intelligence model with as many as 10 trillion parameters, potentially making it one of the largest AI systems currently in development.
According to the Financial Times, people familiar with the project said the model is still in its pre-training phase, which typically takes several months before a system can move on to fine-tuning and eventual release.
Bigger Than China’s Current AI Models
If the reported figure is accurate, ByteDance’s model would be more than three times the size of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3, which has around 2.8 trillion parameters.
Parameters are numerical values that AI models learn during training to identify patterns and generate responses. While parameter count is often used as an indication of an AI model’s scale, a larger model does not automatically mean better performance.
Industry estimates suggest some of the most advanced AI models from leading US companies could also operate at multi-trillion-parameter scales, although companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI generally do not publicly disclose the parameter counts of their latest systems.
ByteDance has not publicly confirmed the reported specifications.
China Intensifies AI Race
The reported project comes as Chinese technology companies accelerate AI development in an effort to compete with leading US firms.
Several Chinese AI developers have already crossed the trillion-parameter mark, while companies continue looking for ways to build increasingly powerful models without making them too expensive to operate.
ByteDance’s reported model is expected to undergo months of pre-training before further development and potential commercial release.
If the 10-trillion-parameter figure is accurate, the project would underline the scale of China’s ambitions in the rapidly intensifying global AI race.
Main Image: AI Supremacy
