The platform is rolling out a updated setting that enables them to reduce the amount of AI-made media appearing in their feeds. This initiative comes as the platform announced that it now features in excess of 1 bn AI-generated clips.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The new functionality is in a pilot phase over the coming weeks before a full-scale release. This development coincides with a rise in content created by AI, spurred by new content generation software.
AI Content on Other Platforms
Recent reports that almost a tenth of the quickest rising channels on a competing service primarily display content made by AI. A considerable share of this output is considered “AI slop”, a phrase for poor-quality, bulk-generated content that is often illogical or surreal.
“We know from our community that many people like content created using AI tools, including computer-generated images to informative clips, and we want to offer the community the ability to adjust the amount of that, according to their own preferences,” said a company executive.
Scale of AI Content
The service shared that there are presently 1.3bn videos on its service identified as artificially created. Overall, over 100 million media items are uploaded to the platform each day, making clips made by AI a relatively small portion of its overall inventory.
How to Adjust Settings
Users will be able to limit or boost the level of AI-generated videos they view by opening the content preference option in the app and choosing the AI content topic. Additional categories that currently be adjusted under the tool include news, style, cosmetics, and dance.
Content Labeling and Policies
TikTok’s guidelines oblige content makers to tag lifelike artificially created content, and it forbids malicious AI impersonations of celebrities or emergencies. Any realistic AI-generated clip that is not labeled can be taken down under its user guidelines.
Furthermore, the service will now add an “AI-made” watermark to content created with its built-in AI features, or detected by an collaborative effort for recognizing artificial media. This measure is aimed to deter users from attempting to circumvent the tagging system.
Educational Initiatives
The company is also introducing a $2 million AI literacy fund for experts and groups to create learning resources about ethical AI use. This program will benefit non-profit groups focused on educating computer science.
Platform Protection
TikTok has justified its moderation strategy, amid debate over proposals to lay off hundreds of content moderators in the United Kingdom. The company is planning to reduce 439 jobs in its user protection department in London, with labor groups and internet security professionals expressing worry that humans are being replaced by AI moderation.
A company official clarified that staff-based oversight would continue to be important, but automated tools can protect employees by eliminating the most harmful content prior to it has to be seen by humans. The platform stated a notable drop in explicit and harmful content seen by human moderators over the previous year due to intervention by its machine learning processes.
“We think that it’s essential to combine humans and technology to keep the platform safe,” she said. “We’ll have staff as integral to the approach, but we further consider it’s highly necessary to limit contact with harmful content as quickly as possible, which is where a significant AI assistance is making a difference operate efficiently.”
