TikTok is introducing a new feature that allows them to lessen the amount of AI-created media appearing in their feeds. This initiative comes as the company announced that it currently hosts in excess of 1 billion AI-generated clips.
Pilot Phase and Launch
This change is in a pilot phase over the following weeks before a widespread release. This advancement coincides with a increase in content created by AI, driven by emerging content generation software.
AI Proliferation Online
Recent reports that nearly one in 10 of the quickest rising channels on a competing service only show AI-generated videos. A significant portion of this content is considered mass-produced AI material, a label for substandard, mass-produced content that is frequently absurd or dreamlike.
Our research shows that many people like content produced via AI tools, ranging from computer-generated images to informative clips, and we aim to provide users the power to see more or less of that, according to their own preferences,” stated a platform representative.
AI on the Platform
The platform shared that there are now 1.3bn videos on its app identified as made with AI. In total, more than 100 mn videos are uploaded to the platform every day, making AI content a relatively small percentage of its complete catalog.
How to Adjust Settings
Members will be able to limit or boost the amount of AI content they watch by accessing the topic control setting in the platform and choosing “AI-generated content”. Further subjects that are already be controlled under the setting encompass politics, fashion, aesthetics, and dance.
Platform Guidelines
The platform’s guidelines require users to tag convincing artificially created content, and it bans dangerous AI impersonations of celebrities or emergencies. Any realistic artificial content that is without a tag can be deleted under its community policies.
Furthermore, the service will now attach an “AI-made” label to content created with its proprietary AI systems, or detected by an industry-wide initiative for identifying AI-generated material. This step is designed to help prevent users from trying to circumvent the tagging system.
Responsible AI Funding
The company is furthermore establishing a $2m educational fund for specialists and institutions to produce informative material about ethical AI use. This program will benefit non-profit groups dedicated to teaching programming and robotics.
Content Safety Approach
TikTok has supported its moderation strategy, during discussion over plans to cut jobs for a large number of content moderators in the United Kingdom. It is expected to cut a significant number of roles in its content moderation team in London, with trade unions and digital protection specialists expressing worry that staff are being displaced by AI moderation.
A trust and safety lead explained that staff-based oversight would still have a role, but artificial intelligence can protect employees by removing the most distressing content before it has to be seen by people. The company reported a notable drop in disturbing and violent content seen by human moderators over the previous year due to the use of its AI tools.
“We think that it’s essential to balance staff and AI to keep the platform safe,” she said. “We’ll have staff as integral to the approach, but we further consider it’s extremely critical to reduce exposure to dangerous material as rapidly, which is where a significant AI assistance is really helping us work at speed.”
