TikTok, the popular social media app owned by ByteDance, has laid off hundreds of workers worldwide.
This includes many employees in Malaysia. The company is moving towards using more Artificial Intelligence (AI) for content moderation.
At first, reports said over 700 people lost their jobs in Malaysia. But TikTok later confirmed that less than 500 employees were affected.
Most of the workers who lost their jobs were in content moderation. They were informed by email late Wednesday, according to sources. TikTok confirmed the layoffs and said this change is part of improving their content moderation system.
Right now, TikTok uses both AI and human workers to check the content posted on the platform. The company explained that these changes will make their global operations stronger.
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A TikTok spokesperson said, “We’re making these changes as part of our ongoing efforts to further strengthen our global operating model for content moderation.”
TikTok also shared plans to invest $2 billion in trust and safety this year. The company stated that 80% of harmful content is already removed by AI.
While TikTok did not say how many jobs were cut worldwide, its parent company, ByteDance, has over 110,000 employees in 200 cities. Some reports suggest that more layoffs might happen next month as TikTok changes its regional operations.
These layoffs come as many tech companies are cutting jobs. The rise of AI has raised concerns that it could replace human jobs.
Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recently said AI could affect nearly 40% of jobs globally. Some jobs will benefit, but others may disappear due to automation.
A report by Goldman Sachs also said that AI could replace 300 million jobs worldwide. The report suggests AI could impact two-thirds of jobs in the US and Europe. Other estimates from companies like OpenAI suggest that AI will change half of the tasks for 20% of workers globally.
