Who's who · Chinese labs
ByteDance Seed
ByteDance's AI research team, maker of the Seed models behind Doubao, Seedance video and Seedream images.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2023
- Based in
- Beijing, China
- People
- Wu Yonghui, Head of ByteDance Seed
- Known for
- Doubao, Seed 2.1, Seedance 2.5, Seedream 5.0 Pro
- Funding
- Part of ByteDance (private)
- Parent
- ByteDance
- Website
- https://seed.bytedance.com
ByteDance Seed is the AI research team of ByteDance, the owner of TikTok and Douyin. Established in 2023, it works on large language models, speech, vision, world models (AI that simulates how environments behave) and AI infrastructure, with labs in China, Singapore, the United States and elsewhere. It is led by Wu Yonghui.
Seed's models power Doubao, one of China's most used AI assistants, which passed 200 million daily users after the 2026 Lunar New Year, and Dola, ByteDance's productivity assistant. Its newest general model is Seed 2.1, built for agent work. It is also known for its Seedance video models, with Seedance 2.5 released on 31 July 2026, and its Seedream image models, with Seedream 5.0 Pro released on 8 July 2026. Other recent releases include SeedRealtime, for live voice and video conversation, and Seed Audio 1.0.
ByteDance has set four AI priorities for 2026: world models, coding, keeping Seedance near the top of video generation, and earning money from Doubao.
Sources
- ByteDance, ByteDance Seed, 2026-10-02
- KrASIA, ByteDance sets four AI priorities for 2026, 2026-06-09
Facts last checked 2026-10-02