AIBRIEF
Zhang Yiming told ByteDance's AI research team (internally called Seed) to favor 'long termism and delayed gratification' over short term benchmark wins, the same week US officials floated AI sanctions and Beijing accused Washington of 'AI
ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming has told the company's Seed AI research team to stop training or refining models on the outputs of rival labs, even at the cost of short-term benchmark wins, according to The Paper, a Chinese state-backed outlet citing sources familiar with the matter.
Distillation is training one model on the outputs of another, a shortcut that can clone capabilities without the underlying research. Yiming's message to Seed staff urged "long-termism and delayed gratification" over chasing benchmark rankings built on other labs' work, per Chinese tech outlets that syndicated the original Information report.
The directive lands inside a live US–China dispute. The same week, US officials accused a Chinese startup of distilling Anthropic's technology, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent floated sanctions or trade blacklists tied to AI. Beijing's foreign ministry fired back with accusations of "AI hegemonism" from Washington.
Yiming stepped back from ByteDance's day-to-day operations in 2021, and the message was relayed from a Seed team meeting rather than issued as formal policy. English-language re-packagings of the Chinese reporting added no new facts. The original Information reporting is paywalled; the public chain runs through a state-affiliated outlet and its syndications, so the exact wording and meeting date have not been independently confirmed. What is clear: a top Chinese AI founder has framed refusing a contested shortcut as a competitive strategy rather than a concession.