People seem to forget that TikTok was originally a pharmaceutical startup…
TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
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Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let’s hope so. Not enough of this in the world: “We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard” But I’d be happy with a little Bell Labs at a few more companies
More like: “We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are profitable”
Hum... That's clearly not the case.
That's why there isn't a lot of it around.
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#23If you buy the theory that Bytedance is a covert operation by the Chinese government, then this fits the narrative. Use the TikTok brand to attract top global talent and perform research in areas of general interest for government agencies. They only need to build a backdoor for Chinese officials to access the research data. Sounds far fetched but I believe this is well within the realm of possibilities.
Please stop the attitude of pandering to low-IQ redditors when proposing plausible theories with self-deprecation and incorrect use of the word "conspiracy"
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#24Is this like when Google started throwing off massive amounts of money, and Larry and Sergei were like, "I dunno, let's solve aging"?
And it was a resounding success! (Not)
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#25I'm really curious about this.
Hypothesis 1) Tik Tok believes AI/machine learning algorithms themselves are converging across fields, and the company is finding that its internal AI innovations can be applied to biology and materials sciences algos and, possibly, vice versa. We'll call this one the "data are data" hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2) Tik Tok has decided that it's an AI company, not a content platform company. This is subtly different, as the locus of intersection between social media and materials sciences is in the company's human capital, not the algorithms used. Call this the "Data Scientists are Data Scientists" hypothesis.
Hypothesis 3) Tik Tok, as an avatar of the CCP, is deliberately adding fuel to the narrative that its a national security threat, thus baiting Biden to shut it down, which would be hugely unpopular with one of his critical voting blocks. Call this the "Troll Biden" hypothesis.
All of these hypotheses seem really important from a geopolitical perspective. If social media companies become our primary engines of applied sciences, that would be a pretty huge shift. If the CCP is using Tik Tok to use cultural popularity to play chicken in the trade war with the US government, that's a pretty major development as well.
Any other ideas? Am I missing something obvious?
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#26Is this like when Google started throwing off massive amounts of money, and Larry and Sergei were like, "I dunno, let's solve aging"?
Let’s hope so. Not enough of this in the world: “We choose to do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard” But I’d be happy with a little Bell Labs at a few more companies
I wonder if the Google Graveyard is full of things that proved to be too hard?
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#27They hired a friend who's a neuroscientist who specializes in reading minds.
At least I know what they're up to.
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#28TikTok, Facebook and Twitter are pharmaceutical companies. They peddle quick dopamine hits. We're all junkies that can't/won't pay for the hits so they wrap up the drugs they give us in ad-paper.
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#29People seem to forget that TikTok was originally a pharmaceutical startup…
Ok. But why don't they operate under a different name?
Re: TikTok has an open computational chemistry position
#30If you buy the theory that Bytedance is a covert operation by the Chinese government, then this fits the narrative. Use the TikTok brand to attract top global talent and perform research in areas of general interest for government agencies. They only need to build a backdoor for Chinese officials to access the research data. Sounds far fetched but I believe this is well within the realm of possibilities.
Please stop the attitude of pandering to low-IQ redditors when proposing plausible theories with self-deprecation and incorrect use of the word "conspiracy"
This is not pandering. I don’t have any information to categorically claim any of this, so why would I say it in any other way?
I’m self-deprecating because I’m on the fence on whether or not this is real or just some fictional plot I want to believe.
Chill, alright?