Vol.007 | In Conversation with Tian Keyu: I Swear Everything I Said Is True

elsewhere别处发生·October 12, 2026·0·1

This episode of elsewhere features a conversation with a controversial figure: Tian Keyu, widely known as the "ByteDance intern who poisoned the models."

It's a story overflowing with dramatic elements. In the eyes of many, Tian Keyu is simply a villain. Some even call him "Lao Tian" — lao as in prison.

In July this year, we recorded this podcast with Tian Keyu. For the first time, he gave a complete account of what he saw and why things unfolded as they did — including his motivations, exactly what he did, what he admits to, and where he feels he's been unfairly stigmatized. We also discussed his earlier academic journey and research choices, which help paint a fuller picture of who he is.

Of course, we also talked about his startup in world models.

A note of context: this interview was recorded over three months ago, so some of what was said may diverge from the current situation and market context — particularly around everything related to world models.

The whole affair sits somewhere between a social story and a legal one. Beyond Tian himself, several other parties are involved: ByteDance, another intern he mentioned, and various related individuals.

Everyone has their own version of the truth, and what they choose to believe. What follows is our conversation with Tian Keyu.

🎙️ Voices

Tian Keyu | Foundation Model Entrepreneur

Jing Liu | elsewhere

📀 BGM

Burn The Witch - Radiohead

📱 Socials

⏱️ Timestamps

Part 1: The ByteDance "Poisoning" Incident

00:02:02 The other intern

00:08:31 The GitHub post

00:15:45 Vigilante justice?

00:23:32 How it escalated to litigation

00:30:36 Winning a NeurIPS Best Paper

Part 2: Research, Entrepreneurship, World Models

00:38:02 The attention from the incident — a "double buff" for starting a company

00:48:03 From chemistry enthusiast to computer science convert

01:00:14 What are world models

01:12:23 Rather than distilling humans, I want to distill nature

01:24:40 Data model fit

Part 3: Can You Swear Everything You've Said Is True?

01:33:26 Still grateful to ByteDance

01:37:04 Can you swear everything you've said is true

01:44:43 Rabbits, MJ, and tenderness

01:52:58 What you'd do if AGI were achieved

View episode transcript on Xiaoyuzhou