The platform is rolling out a new feature that permits them to reduce the amount of AI-created videos appearing in their timelines. This initiative comes as the service announced that it now features more than 1 billion content made with AI.
Trial and Implementation
The new functionality is being tested over the coming weeks before a full-scale launch. This development comes amid a rise in AI-generated material, fueled by new content generation software.
AI Content on Other Platforms
Studies have shown that nearly a tenth of the quickest rising channels on a competing service exclusively feature content made by AI. A significant portion of this output is considered “AI slop”, a term for inferior, bulk-generated content that is often nonsensical or surreal.
Our research shows that numerous viewers appreciate content made with AI tools, ranging from computer-generated images to science explainers, and we aim to give people the ability to see more or less of that, based on their own likes,” commented a platform representative.
AI on the Platform
The service shared that there are presently 1.3bn videos on its service tagged as artificially created. Overall, more than 100 m media items are added to the app each day, making clips made by AI a limited part of its complete catalog.
User Control Features
Viewers will be able to limit or boost the volume of AI content they view by opening the topic control option in the platform and selecting the AI content topic. Further subjects that can already be modified under the filter cover politics, style, aesthetics, and dance.
Platform Guidelines
TikTok’s rules oblige content makers to identify “realistic” AI-made content, and it prohibits malicious AI impersonations of celebrities or crisis events. Any believable AI-generated clip that is unmarked can be taken down under its terms of service.
Additionally, the app will from now on attach an artificially created label to content made using its proprietary AI systems, or identified by an cross-platform project for identifying content made by AI. This step is intended to deter users from attempting to evade the tagging system.
AI Literacy Programs
The company is furthermore introducing a $2 million AI literacy fund for experts and organizations to produce educational content about using AI responsibly. This project will support non-profit groups focused on training programming and robotics.
Moderation Strategy
The platform has defended its content review process, amid debate over proposals to make redundant a large number of content moderators in the United Kingdom. TikTok is set to reduce a significant number of roles in its content moderation department in its British office, with trade unions and digital protection specialists voicing alarm that humans are being replaced by AI moderation.
A trust and safety lead clarified that staff-based oversight would remain essential, but automated tools can safeguard staff by filtering out the most graphic content before it is viewed by staff. TikTok stated a notable drop in explicit and harmful content reviewed by content reviewers over the past year due to intervention by its automated systems.
“We think that it’s essential to balance people and machines to ensure user safety,” the official commented. “We’ll have humans as integral to the approach, but we also think it’s highly necessary to reduce exposure to harmful content as rapidly, which is why a extensive automated help is making a difference work at speed.”
