The platform is rolling out a updated setting that permits them to cut down on the quantity of AI-created media appearing in their streams. This initiative comes as the company revealed that it now features in excess of 1 billion content made with AI.
Testing and Rollout
The update is in a pilot phase over the following weeks before a global launch. This shift comes amid a surge in AI content, spurred by emerging AI video creators.
The Broader AI Trend
Recent reports that approximately one in 10 of the quickest rising video streams on a popular video site only show clips produced artificially. A considerable share of this material is deemed low-quality AI content, a label for inferior, bulk-generated content that is often absurd or dreamlike.
Our research shows that many people like content created using AI tools, ranging from AI artwork to educational videos, and we intend to provide users the option to adjust the amount of that, according to their own preferences,” stated a spokesperson.
Scale of AI Content
The platform shared that there are now 1.3bn videos on its app tagged as AI-generated. Overall, over 100 m pieces of content are uploaded to the app daily, making AI content a relatively small part of its total content library.
User Control Features
Viewers will be able to reduce or increase the level of artificial media they watch by using the topic control feature in the platform and selecting the AI content topic. Other topics that can already be controlled under the tool cover current affairs, clothing, beauty, and dance.
Content Labeling and Policies
TikTok’s rules require users to label lifelike AI-made content, and it bans dangerous deepfakes of celebrities or emergencies. Any realistic artificial content that is not labeled can be deleted under its user guidelines.
In addition, the platform will from now on attach an artificially created watermark to content created with its own AI tools, or detected by an collaborative effort for identifying content made by AI. This step is aimed to stop users from attempting to bypass the labeling process.
Responsible AI Funding
TikTok is additionally introducing a $2m educational fund for professionals and institutions to create educational content about responsible artificial intelligence. This program will support charitable organizations specializing in educating coding and technology.
Moderation Strategy
TikTok has justified its moderation strategy, following discussion over plans to lay off numerous review team members in Britain. It is planning to eliminate hundreds of positions in its trust and safety department in the UK capital, with trade unions and digital protection specialists raising concerns that humans are being replaced by automated systems.
A senior executive explained that people-led review would remain essential, but automated tools can safeguard staff by filtering out the most graphic content prior to it has to be seen by humans. TikTok announced a notable drop in shocking and graphic content seen by safety staff over the last 12 months due to the use of its AI tools.
It is vital to combine humans and technology to maintain a secure environment,” the executive stated. “We’ll have people as part of that process, but we also think it’s very important to reduce exposure to unsafe media as quickly as possible, which is the area in which a lot of the machine support is proving valuable work at speed.”
