ByteDance has made a strategic move by hiring Wu Yonghui, a seasoned AI researcher with 17 years at Google, to lead its AI research efforts.

Yonghui, who played a pivotal role in developing the Gemini AI models at Google, will now report directly to ByteDance CEO Liang Rubo.

He will head ByteDance's Seed department, which was established in early 2023 to focus on generative AI and large language models, inspired by the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The competition in AI has escalated, especially after the release of DeepSeek's open-source reasoning model, DeepSeek-R1, which competes with OpenAI's offerings.

ByteDance's commitment to AI advancements is further demonstrated by the recent launch of its powerful video generator, OmniHuman-1, capable of creating realistic videos from a single image.

In January 2025, ByteDance also updated its AI model with Doubao-1.5-pro, showcasing its ongoing investment in AI technology.

The trend of AI talent leaving Google is notable, with former executives like Mustafa Suleyman and Noam Shazeer moving to competitors or starting their own ventures.

Under Yonghui's leadership, the company aims to explore the 'upper limit of intelligence' through foundational research.

Wu brings significant expertise in natural language processing, particularly in speech translation and automatic speech recognition.

This hiring reflects the intensifying competition in the AI sector, as tech companies aggressively seek to attract top talent from rivals.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has acknowledged this trend, suggesting that the departure of researchers could ultimately benefit Google by fostering innovation.

Prior to his departure, Wu held senior roles at Google, including Vice President of Research and Google Fellow within Google DeepMind.