Major Upgrade of ByteDance's Douyin AI Products — Early Investor Chen Weixing Launches New Criticism

On June 11, ByteDance’s tech arm Volcano Engine released several new AI models, including the Doubao Large Model 1.6 and the video generation model Seedance 1.0 Pro, and also upgraded its Agent development platform and other AI-native cloud services.

Public information indicates that Doubao 1.6 ranks among the global leaders according to various authoritative evaluations. However, as the world’s most valuable unicorn continues to rise, both its supporters and critics have become increasingly vocal.

Early Investor Criticizes Douyin AI Again

In recent years, ByteDance has made relentless investments in AI, yielding significant results. Its core AI algorithms play a crucial role in the Douyin short video platform. Moreover, Douyin Doubao has become the most widely used AI app in China.

At the June 11 launch event, ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo stated: “The company will remain committed to long-term investment, pursuing breakthroughs in intelligence to serve industrial applications.”

Supporters of Douyin AI praise the algorithmic recommendations as an “efficient information filtering system” and highlight its use of human-machine collaborative governance to break information echo chambers and enhance user experience through diverse content suggestions, such as cross-domain content mixing.

Content creators and developers particularly benefit from tools like special effects templates and editing assistants, which significantly boost their productivity. Many ordinary users also appreciate AI’s ability to deliver highly personalized content recommendations that precisely match their interests — making the app irresistible.

However, these same advantages — especially personalized recommendations and interest-based content matching — have also drawn sharp criticism.

Just a day before ByteDance's launch event, Chen Weixing, an early investor in the company and founder of Kuaidi Dache, criticized Douyin again via his account “Funcity Holdings,” stating that AI must benefit all people. He previously accused Douyin AI of “manipulating users’ consciousness through algorithms.”

Chen even condemned Douyin in semi-public posts on WeChat Moments, calling its founder Zhang Yiming “a demon” and accusing him of using Douyin AI for personal profit and control over people’s minds — likening him to an emperor of ideological control.

His harsh, even extreme remarks have resonated with some netizens, though many believe his radical stance is a way to promote his own blockchain projects and attract attention.

Du Zijian, a social media marketing researcher, once commented: “If he (Chen Weixing) is fully aware of the consequences of his words and still lets such extreme narratives spread, then this goes beyond technical critique and becomes a calculated malicious attack.”

Blockchain Evangelism Behind Chen Weixing’s Rants?

As one of ByteDance's most vocal critics, Chen Weixing’s early entrepreneurial journey has been dramatic and controversial.

He graduated from Zhejiang University’s College of Civil Engineering and was listed in Forbes China’s 2012 “Post-80s Entrepreneurs” list.

In August 2006, while still a junior in college, Chen co-founded Hangzhou Funcity Technology. A year later, his team launched the web game Magic Academy, which gained widespread acclaim in over 20 countries and attracted over 50 million users globally.

This game helped Chen accumulate his first pot of gold, and in the 2010s he led Kuaidi Dache (a ride-hailing app) with backing from Alibaba and Matrix Partners China, entering the “ride-hailing war” with Didi that reshaped China's transportation market.

The ending is well known: Didi, led by Cheng Wei, eventually merged with Kuaidi, forcing Chen out. Afterwards, he reportedly suffered from depression and anxiety, and his public statements grew increasingly “bold.”

Following the merger, Chen made few notable moves in business, and companies he controlled became involved in numerous lawsuits. For instance, Hangzhou Funcity Technology has faced over 20 legal cases — mostly as the defendant — involving contract and trademark disputes. Hangzhou Kuaichi Technology, also controlled by Chen, was also named in multiple service contract disputes in 2023.

Later, Chen left China and began actively promoting blockchain and cryptocurrency projects abroad, repeatedly endorsing his own ventures. He openly admitted that his public criticism of others was more like “a marketing strategy,” aimed at evangelizing blockchain. People close to the crypto industry say Chen spares no effort to attract attention online, sometimes using cryptic or bizarre language — including references to the I Ching or "dragon clans" — to build a following.

Compared to China’s fast-growing AI sector, blockchain and cryptocurrency have faced significant controversy since their inception. In 2021, China’s central bank officially classified cryptocurrency-related business activities as illegal financial operations.

Even in Hong Kong — one of the most active blockchain regions in the Chinese-speaking world — regulators are now rolling out policies to bring the previously unregulated crypto market under control and protect ordinary investors from being “harvested” by bad actors.