Chew predicts AI breakthroughs ahead

TikTok CEO Shou Chew said on Monday at DBS Bank's Asia Future Forward Conference in Singapore that AI will deliver major scientific breakthroughs within two to three years in physics, biotech, chemistry and materials science.

“In the next two to three years, we're going to have a real scientific breakthrough: physics, biotech, chemistry, material science, because of AI.”

But AI is overestimated now

Chew said people may expect too much from AI in the short term. The human brain still outperforms AI at visual recognition and long-term memory retrieval, he said.

“I think in the short term we are probably overestimating it, but in the long term we are probably underestimating it.”

Cybersecurity risks are real

Chew warned that AI poses significant cybersecurity dangers. Users may grant AI agents wide permissions without understanding consequences, such as allowing an agent to make purchases that exceed intended amounts.

ByteDance pursues AI science work

TikTok's parent company ByteDance develops its own AI models and published Protenix-v2 in April for biomolecular structure prediction. ByteDance also operates Anew Labs, an AI drug discovery unit, and is exploring collaboration with scientists.