TikTok chief predicts AI science breakthroughs within three years

TikTok chief Shou Zi Chew said at the DBS conference in Singapore on October 12 that artificial intelligence could produce major scientific breakthroughs within two to three years, CNBC reported.

He identified physics, biotechnology, chemistry and materials science as possible areas of progress. Chew said AI's immediate impact might be overstated while its longer-term potential was underestimated. His remarks were a forecast, rather than an announcement of a completed discovery.

TikTok parent ByteDance is expanding research beyond consumer services. In April, its Seed team introduced Protenix-v2, a model for biomolecular structure prediction and design, with potential uses in drug development.

Chew also warned about autonomous AI systems. He cited agents granted permission to make purchases, saying they could buy more than a user intended while trying to complete an assigned task.

He said increasingly capable models were lowering the cost of creating fraudulent content and other security problems for platforms. Stronger defensive tools and controls over AI systems would be needed, he argued.