22/12/2025

LYFE MONDAY | DEC 22, 2025

23

TikTok: Key things to know

University into a non-stop AI development lab where participants built, shipped and demoed 140 projects in a single weekend. The event’s unique 24-hour format created an intensity that traditional conferences cannot match – teams forming at breakfast, coding through the night and presenting polished applications by Sunday afternoon. Where multi-billion-dollar AI meets grassroots innovation The hackathon attracted backing from AI industry titans, including title sponsors Cursor and Anthropic, alongside AWS, Vercel, Groq, ElevenLabs and over 20 other technology companies. This was not just sponsorship – it was direct collaboration. Participants gained hands-on access to enterprise-grade AI development platforms, with Cursor providing up to US$5,000 (RM20,384) in development credits and Anthropic offering US$1,000 in Claude API access to winning teams. “When companies such as Cursor and Anthropic put their tools directly in builders’ hands, you see what’s actually possible with AI. These aren’t demos or tutorials – participants are building real applications that solve real problems,” said event organiser Faw. The diversity of sponsor tracks reflected the breadth of AI application development: voice AI with ElevenLabs, database solutions with TiDB, design tools with Mobbin and even bug detection with T IKTOK boasts over a billion users worldwide, including more than 170 million in the US, it says – nearly half the country’s population. Here is a closer look at the app, which said it had signed a deal with investors that would allow it to maintain US operations and avoid a ban threat over its Chinese ownership. tool global powerhouse is one of the biggest shifts in digital entertainment since the advent of social media. From friends dancing together to home chefs sharing recipes, TikTok can transform ordinary users into celebrities, revolutionising the traditional path to stardom. It was launched in 2016 by Chinese tech company ByteDance for the local market, where it is called Douyin. The international version, TikTok, was released in 2017. The app gained massive momentum after merging with Musical.ly, a lip-synching app, a year later. ‘For You’ page The so-called secret sauce in TikTok’s rapid expansion has been its innovative recommendation algorithm. Instead of showing content from accounts that users already follow, the endless scroll of TikTok’s “For to Born in China TikTok’s video-sharing surge from niche

users off their services. Other countries have expressed concern about the potential effects of TikTok on young users, including accusations it funnels them into echo chambers and fails to contain illegal, violent or obscene content. Albania banned TikTok for a year in March after a 14-year-old schoolboy was killed in the culmination of a confrontation that started on social media. Sell or be banned The US Congress passed legislation in 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest control of TikTok in the US or be banned. According to an internal memo seen by AFP, TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees that the social media company and its Chinese owner ByteDance had agreed to a new joint venture in the US. Oracle – whose executive chairman Larry Ellison is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump – Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX are on board as major investors. “The US joint venture will be responsible for US data protection, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurance,” Chew said in the memo. – AFP expanding commercial possibilities. Live workshops throughout the event taught participants new AI development workflows and techniques, creating a continuous learning environment alongside the competition. Over 70 volunteers supported participants, maintaining the collaborative atmosphere that distinguishes community-organised events from corporate competitions. Part of Southeast Asia’s broader builder movement The hackathon represented the culmination of Aisea’s two-week builder festival across five Southeast Asian countries, positioning the region as a unified AI development hub rather than individual national scenes. This community-first approach attracted participants from across the region, creating cross-border professional networks alongside the competition results. “This hackathon shattered a lot of assumptions about Malaysian tech talent. The quality that came out was extremely high, in some cases better than anything we’ve seen in the country. Two brothers who’d never even joined a hackathon before won the whole thing. That tells you what’s happening here,” shared Joseph Chin, founder and lead of AI Tinkerers Kuala Lumpur, a community partner to the hackathon and one of the event’s judges. “An event of this scale – close to 2,000 signups – is a huge win for the scene, the country and even the region. It might look like it appeared out of nowhere, but a few of us know it’s really the result of a couple of years building quietly alongside a passionate community, and those quiet efforts slowly compounding. It’s just an early glimpse of what Malaysia’s ecosystem is capable of, and this is just the beginning.”

o Platform signs deal allowing continued operations in US You” page is based on viewing habits, engagement patterns and sophisticated content analysis. A video from a complete unknown can reach millions of people if the algorithm determines it engaging enough – a model that the app’s rivals have been quick to follow. TikTok’s focus on short clips also helps keep users hooked. It was initially limited to uploads of 15 seconds, but this was later expanded to up to 10 minutes, and now some users can post videos as long as 60 minutes. Political suspicions TikTok’s mass appeal means its rise has been controversial – mainly over its Chinese ownership and its built-in unpredictability. The platform has faced scrutiny from governments worldwide, particularly in the US, over data privacy and potential ties to the Chinese government, including

TikTok’s focus on short clips keeps users hooked. – 123RFPIC

The social media giant has appealed the fine, insisting it has never received any requests from Chinese authorities for European users’ data. Teenage safety fears In a world first this month, Australia banned under-16s from major social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, with the onus on the tech firms to kick young

accusations

of

spying

and

propaganda. India banned TikTok along with other Chinese apps in 2020, citing national security concerns. Huge fine A European Union watchdog fined TikTok €530 million (RM2.5 billion) in May for failing to guarantee its user data was shielded from access by Chinese authorities.

AI building marathon unites developers with big-name tech firms WHAT happens when you put 684 developers, designers and founders in one building for 24 straight hours with unlimited access to cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tools? Malaysia’s largest AI hackathon set out to prove it can create magic. The Cursor × Anthropic Hackathon Malaysia transformed Monash

Cursor × Anthropic Hackathon Malaysia showcases an intense collaboration model that turns strangers into functional AI development teams.

the venture track, indicating serious business intent rather than prototype experimentation. AI applications built for real-world impact Projects ranged from voice AI applications and enterprise database solutions to digital banking platforms and creative tools. The 28% of teams tackling digital banking reflected Malaysia’s position as a regional fintech hub, while the diversity of other applications showcased AI’s

matchmaking system. Students connected with experienced developers, designers paired with founders and technical specialists found business-minded collaborators. The result? Teams that combined complementary skills from day one. The participant mix included 38% students, 14% developers and 16% founders – creating natural conditions for technical execution and commercial viability. Nearly half of all project submissions targeted

CodeRabbit. Network School offered memberships worth US$1,500 per month to winning teams, while 500 Global provided direct access to their AI residency programme. Community-driven team formation creates unexpected collaborations One of the event’s most distinctive features was its organic team formation process. With 24% of participants arriving without predetermined teams, the hackathon operated as a massive professional