ByteDance’s AI research unit Seed has formed an Alignment & Preparedness team and is recruiting 10 researchers globally, Reuters reported on 15 October. The positions are based in Beijing, Shanghai and San Jose, California — a substantial hiring push for a dedicated AI safety unit.
In a recruitment post on its official WeChat account on 14 October, Seed said it would make a long-term investment in safety for its increasingly capable models. Seed said the new group would get as much computing power and support for research as teams developing frontier models.
Its planned work spans safety training during model development, automated vulnerability tests, tools for monitoring and explaining model behaviour, and environments for testing AI agents. On 13 October, state-backed newspaper The Paper identified Seed as China’s first frontier AI lab with a separate department devoted to safety and alignment, Reuters reported.
Seed said it also planned outside testing and partnerships with academic and research organisations, with safety research spanning model training, assessment and rollout.
