TikTok owner ByteDance is internally testing an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, joining in a race with other Chinese internet conglomerates like Alibaba, Baidu to develop a local version of ChatGPT.

According to a ByteDance spokesman, the project named “Grace” is an experimental artificial intelligence chatbot that is "still in its infancy and for internal testing only."  

The chatbot was developed within Feishu, ByteDance's enterprise collaboration platform known as Lark overseas. Currently, the testing phase is limited to a specific group of employees. When employees access the service, they will be presented with a pop-up message indicating that it relies on multiple extensive language models.

ByteDance is making its second attempt to tap into the generative AI trend, following the global pursuit of replicating the success of OpenAI's ChatGPT. ChatGPT is not officially accessible in China.

In May, TikTok announced its preliminary exploration of a chatbot named "Tako," designed to engage in conversations with users regarding short videos and assist them in discovering content. Currently, TikTok is conducting tests with a limited number of users in the Philippines to gather valuable feedback and insights.

Since its establishment in 2012, ByteDance has been a strong advocate of artificial intelligence (AI), which underlies the algorithms powering personalized content delivery to users based on their interests and engagement. The company's flagship products, such as TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin, as well as the news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, heavily rely on ByteDance's proprietary AI-driven recommendation system to provide users with curated content.

China's internet sector has recently witnessed a significant surge in AI investment, with companies like Baidu leading the charge. In March, Baidu unveiled its major response to ChatGPT with Ernie Bot, sparking a competition among other companies such as Alibaba, Tencent Holdings Ltd., and SenseTime Group Inc. to introduce their own competing platforms. While local Chinese media outlets have reported that ByteDance is developing its own large language models, the company has not officially confirmed these claims.