Veteran Google AI Researcher Joins ByteDance to Lead AI Research

Wu Yonghui, a prominent figure in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), has left his position at Google to join ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, the South China Morning Post reports. Wu, a "Google Fellow" with 17 years of experience at the US tech giant, will now lead ByteDance's foundational AI research efforts.

Wu's new role at ByteDance's Seed department, established in early 2023, will see him report directly to company CEO Liang Rubo. He has been appointed head of the department's foundational research, according to sources familiar with the matter.

ByteDance's decision to recruit Wu follows the industry-wide surge in interest in large language models and generative AI, sparked by the emergence of OpenAI's ChatGPT. The company aims to "explore the upper limit of intelligence" through its AI research endeavors.

Wu's career at Google spans over a decade, starting as a software engineer in 2008. He later transitioned to Google Brain, the company's AI research team, where he worked on various projects in machine learning, genomics, and natural language understanding.

He was promoted to Google Fellow in September 2023, a prestigious senior-level position equivalent to a vice-president for managers. His LinkedIn profile indicates that his last role at Google was vice-president of research at DeepMind, the company's AI research lab.

Despite inquiries, ByteDance has not yet responded to requests for comment.