Users will soon have a new feature that enables them to lessen the volume of AI-made media appearing in their streams. This move comes as the service revealed that it presently contains in excess of 1 bn AI videos.
Pilot Phase and Launch
The new functionality is being tested over the next few weeks before a full-scale release. This shift comes amid a rise in AI content, driven by new AI video creators.
The Broader AI Trend
Recent reports that approximately a tenth of the fastest-growing video streams on a competing service primarily display content made by AI. A considerable share of this content is deemed “AI slop”, a term for substandard, bulk-generated content that is typically absurd or bizarre.
Based on user feedback that numerous viewers like content created using AI tools, from computer-generated images to science explainers, and we want to give people the option to see more or less of that, based on their own likes,” stated a company executive.
Scale of AI Content
TikTok announced that there are currently over a billion videos on its service tagged as artificially created. Overall, more than 100 million videos are uploaded to the app daily, making AI-generated material a limited percentage of its overall inventory.
User Control Features
Viewers will be in a position to reduce or increase the volume of AI content they watch by accessing the “manage topic” feature in the platform and selecting AI-made media. Additional categories that currently be controlled under the tool encompass politics, fashion, beauty, and dance.
Platform Guidelines
The platform’s guidelines mandate users to tag convincing AI-made content, and it prohibits dangerous fake videos of public figures or emergencies. Any authentic-looking artificial content that is without a tag can be deleted under its community policies.
In addition, the service will henceforth apply an “AI-made” watermark to content produced via its built-in AI features, or detected by an collaborative effort for identifying artificial media. This step is aimed to stop users from attempting to bypass the disclosure requirement.
AI Literacy Programs
The company is also introducing a $2m educational fund for professionals and groups to produce informative material about responsible artificial intelligence. This initiative will assist educational bodies dedicated to training coding and technology.
Moderation Strategy
TikTok has defended its safety measures, amid debate over intentions to cut jobs for numerous content moderators in Britain. The company is planning to eliminate 439 jobs in its user protection team in its British office, with worker representatives and online safety experts raising concerns that staff are being displaced by automated systems.
A trust and safety lead explained that people-led review would still have a role, but artificial intelligence can safeguard staff by eliminating the most graphic content before it is viewed by people. TikTok reported a notable drop in explicit and harmful content seen by safety staff over the past year due to intervention by its AI tools.
It is vital to integrate humans and technology to maintain a secure environment,” the executive stated. “We’ll have staff as involved in the system, but we also think it’s highly necessary to minimize viewing of harmful content as swiftly, which is why a lot of the machine support is really helping us operate efficiently.”
