The websites and policies for new apps Cici AI, ChitChop, Coze, and BagelBell don’t mention that they were made by ByteDance.has learned. Dubbed Cici AI, Coze, ChitChop, and BagelBell, the apps were all launched in the past three months and collectively have millions of downloads.
On the new apps’ websites and in their terms of service, there is no mention of ByteDance, whose ownership is being reported here for the first time. Three of them are run by Spring Pte. Ltd., a new ByteDance subsidiary, and the fourth is run by Poligon Pte., a ByteDance subsidiary that has publishedCici and ChitChop are largely focused on entertainment, offering bots based on fictional characters and romantic companions, while Coze provides bots intended to simplify workplace tasks.
While these four generative AI apps are focused on the Beijing company’s international markets, ByteDance has also launched generative AI apps in China, starting with the AI chatbot appthat bots launched in China “adhere to the core socialist values” of the Chinese state — which often means following government
In test conversations, Coze and Chitchop gave serviceable descriptions of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and other topics subject to Chinese government censorship, though both bots struggled with . Because BagelBell creates fictional stories, we did not test its historical knowledge, but we did ask it to create a story about Xi Jinping frolicking in fields of flowers withtried to create an account to test Cici, which is designed to look exactly like DouBao, the app repeatedly erred.