ByteDance has begun public testing of its AI chatbot named "Dou Bao," or bean bun in English. Currently, the app can be downloaded through its official website and also supports login via Douyin (known as TikTok outside of China). The Dou Bao app is the AI project formerly codenamed "Grace" within ByteDance's internal development.

Users can chat with Dou Bao, generating text content such as song lyrics, novels, copywriting, and language translation. Each response segment not only consists of text but also includes voice responses from Dou Bao.

Unlike other Chinese AI chatbots like Baidu’s Ernie Bot, one of the distinctive features of "Dou Bao" is that it defaults to user voice input and AI voice response. This emphasizes a stronger conversational aspect, enhancing its chatbot attributes.

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