According to NetEase Technology, Yang Jianchao, the head of ByteDance's Douyin large model visual multimodal direction, announced he will "take a temporary break" and has completed the work handover. His position will be taken over by Zhou Chang, the former head of Alibaba's M6 large model technology, who goes by the nickname "Shiguang". Zhou will continue to lead the "Seed Visual Model" team and report to Wu Yonghui, former vice president of Google DeepMind.
This change has drawn attention from the industry regarding the stability of ByteDance's core AI technology team. It is reported that Yang Jianchao chose to temporarily step down due to difficulties in balancing the work rhythms between North America and China, long-term pressure, and family reasons.
Yang Jianchao is a key figure in ByteDance's AI system. He previously worked as a visual algorithm researcher at Adobe and Snapchat. He joined ByteDance in 2018 and took full responsibility for visual model development since 2023. Zhou Chang is a well-known technical expert in the domestic AI field, with an undergraduate degree from Fudan University and a doctorate from Peking University. He once led the development of Alibaba's M6 model.
It is reported that the Seed team has branches in multiple locations around the world, focusing on cutting-edge AI research in image and video generation. ByteDance has repeatedly emphasized that its long-term investment in fundamental research will not waver.